Digimon Miracles: The Start of Miracles
by Athre
Summary: Post-01/Pre-02. When Hiroto meets his digimon partner, he doesn't know what else to expect, but he definitely didn't think of a messed up life, haywire robots, and a killer samurai. Could things get any worse?  OCs can be added through reviews/PMs.
1. Monsters?

To all my old readers, I really apologize for the need of this rewrite. I didn't even have the heart to write it all the way back, but to make up for this, I'll add in a few things. Please just bear with me for a while until this rewrite of this arc is over. Thank you.

To all my new readers, this story is based on a first-person view, and OCs are accepted through reviews or PMs, though some might not appear until a little later in the story.

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><p>Digimon Miracles<br>The Start of Miracles  
>Chapter 1: Monsters?<p>

I was having the time of my life, before I was attacked by killer monsters.

Before I get to that, let me introduce myself. My name is Hiroto Kiyoshi. I am 11 years old, and I live in the Kiyoshi mansion in central Tokyo. Yes, Tokyo, as in the Tokyo in Japan. Just because I'm from Japanese heritage doesn't mean I'm not English educated, okay?

I go to a high school known as Saikou. Keep this a secret, but behind their backs, everyone calls them 'Psycho'. This probably originated from the fact that Saikou teachers enjoy giving tons of work to us students. This habit must have something to do with their motto, "We present only the best!" Yeah, the best headaches, maybe.

Everyone in Saikou is expected to either excel, or exit. And when I mean everyone, I mean _everyone_, teachers, students, including those with problems. Do I have problems? You can say that.

In my first week in Saikou, I accidentally gave the principal a weird haircut. The result? He hid in his office for the next two to three months waiting for his hair to grow back. It took a lot of hair-removing agent, but it was an accident, even if there _was_ hair-removing agent involved. Another time, Saikou had organized a trip to a museum. I had the rare experience of playing dominoes with life-sized statues.

These problems may sound 'fun' to you, but let me tell you, it took a lot of detention to calm down the angry principal, and over fourteen million yen was required to fix the damage at the museum. That's about one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. I know this because I was forced to memorize this in maths class. Crazy, huh?

Now, the school was organizing another trip. This one was to the beach. It was to be on this Friday, in two days time. I was eager to go. This time, it wasn't to wreak havoc on purpose (not that the two other times were on purpose) but this time it was to relax. For once, I'd be able to kick back. For once, I'd be able to relieve all my worries. And ironically, for once, I would be unable to go due to my tuition class.

The only way out of this dilemma was through my brother, Rinji, who was 'man of the house'. He and his twin, Mai, are 'lord and lady of the house' as my parents are usually out. They return late at night, probably around midnight, and leave for work again early in the morning, sometime around sunrise. Therefore, I seldom meet them unless it's a special occasion, like a festival, or a party.

Now, all of you might think that having a brother or sister manage the house would be nice. Well, it's not. In fact, it's pure torture. I have to do every single thing they say, and since they side with my twin, Yuki, who mostly hates me, most of the chores I have to do are _not _pretty, or easy.

I got down at the nearest bus stop and walked five minutes to my house. Or you could call it a mansion. There were four floors – ground floor, second floor, third floor, and the attic. Even the attic was comfortable to live in, as we often clean it. Let me rephrase that. _I_ often clean it. My brother and sisters probably don't even know this fact.

I opened the heavy ten feet tall gates. There was a garden between the gate and the house itself, with a cemented pathway as a means of getting to the mansion. Along the cemented path were rows of flowers. Even though I've been staying here for most of my life, I could only name some of them. There were roses, hibiscus, sunflowers, and more.

I open the front door and tried sneaking up to my room when I spotted someone at the kitchen. My twin sister, Yuki, was sitting at the dining table, eating her lunch. Her long brown hair was flowing down her back, and she was wearing a pink shirt with a short dark blue skirt. The sunlight glistened off her pale skin. Many people complimented that my sister's strikingly beautiful, but there wasn't anything special about her in my eye.

She was taking a small portion of my lunch, which got me a little irritated. Okay, a lot irritated, but that was just because she took an extremely huge portion. About nine tenths of my plate. What happened to her so-called 'flawless diet plan'? She shouldn't talk the walk if she couldn't walk the talk.

I considered edging around the mansion to get to the back door. I would rather cross a narrow gap filled with thorns and bushes than confront my annoying sister. To all those people who think that having a twin sister is wonderful, take it back. But not all are bad, so keep wishing for a twin sister. Just not one like mine. You'll soon see how bad she is.

Before I could step out of the door, she called "Hiroto!"

I knew my day had just become ten times worse. "Yes?" I asked politely, knowing fully well that Yuki was the favourite of my brother and sister. I didn't know why, but they were pretty much just caring about Yuki. Me? You can just forget about it.

"Grab me some coke, my steak is too dry," she complained.

"First of all, it's _my_ steak, and second, the soda refrigerator isn't more than two feet away from you. Go get it yourself," I retorted. I was kind of in a hurry, so I wasn't exactly in the best of moods. Besides, she took my steak _and_ asked me to serve her. What did I look like, a waiter? Don't answer that. "And what happened to you and your diet? You're literally digesting a whole cow."

"Hiroto, just do it," a voice came from behind me.

I'd recognize that voice anywhere. My _elder_ sister, Mai, came up behind me. Her brown hair flowed down her back like Yuki's, and her green eyes looked intimidating as they stared right into mine. She had on a white shirt underneath a blue jacket as well as a pair of blue jeans. Her blue-styled tennis shoes showed that she was on her way to play some tennis with her friends.

I sighed in despair. Was anyone in this house ever on my side? I walked towards the refrigerator, and passed the soda to Yuki. And even though I had done what I was supposed to do, Mai went on to give me a twenty-minute lecture on relationships and kindness. Like she knew anything about those values. She hardly ever treats me like anything more than dirt, and that's when she's happy. At the end of her lecture, she said ,"Go to your room."

I slumped up the stairs. I saw Rinji, my older brother, sitting in his study room, working on some sort of school project. On normal occasions, I would just pass his study and walk to my room, put down my bag, shut the door, and emo there all day. On other occasions, I'd spend some time with my friends, which did not (and hopefully never will) include Yuki.

But this time it was different. This time I really wanted to go on that field trip.. I mean, outing. My friends had already guaranteed that they'd be going, so I'd feel bad if I were left out. The last time I officially enjoyed myself was two months ago at a McDonald branch of lunch. We went out shopping later, but since it was mostly window-shopping, I didn't get any souvenirs to clearly remember it by.

I confronted Rinji and mustered up all the courage I could find, which wasn't much. "Brother," I said.

He had spiky brown hair, and he was very friendly, but just not to me. Like Mai, he wore a blue jacket over his white shirt. His jeans were dark blue in colour, and he had black shoes on. The type he usually wore when we went for soccer practice. Yes, _we_, not _he_. I was nominated the captain by my teammates, but Rinji was chosen as the coach by our school. So, even though he's dead-strict and mean, there was nothing we could do.

"What?" he asked, giving me a nice smile, but it was half-hearted. He was probably forcing it, anyway.

"My school has this trip to the beach, and I was wondering if I could-" Rinji cut me off before I had the chance to finish.

"No."

See? He's friendly. He listened to my request before shutting me down. Usually he'd tell me to go away and leave him alone. Just then, I heard footsteps and I hurried to my room. If it was Mai, she'd tell my head off for disturbing Rinji. If it were Yuki, she'd tell Mai, who'd tell my head off. I shut the door and lay on the bed thinking, unaware that the heavy bag was making my back feel uncomfortable.

"Rinji!" Oh, so it was _Yuki_ who was coming up the stairs. "My class is having this big beach outing, can I go?"

"Sure," Rinji said cheerfully, almost as if he were happy for her. Well, why wouldn't he be? But why didn't I get that type of attention?

That night, I considered my available options. And I realized that there was only one way I could get on that outing. Sweet-talking would fail, one hundred percent, as I didn't like curry flavouring people to get what I wanted. Force might work, but my brother was a pretty buff athlete with quite a number of gold medals. The only solution – I had to escape my tuition class. Sure, Rinji will fly off the handle, but that happens every day.

The two days passed quickly. Wednesday, and Thursday. I went through the same routine every day. Go to school, complete assignments, go home, do something for Yuki, get scolded by Mai, go out for soccer practices (in the garden, not outside, since Rinji forbade me from hanging out with the team until weekends), eat dinner, and go to sleep.

When school ended on Friday, I was literally jumping with excitement. I was supposed to go for my English tuition, yes, but the outing was more important. I met up with my friends, Lance, Yuna, Dylan, and Minnie at the bus stop. They were already chatting away happily when I got there, wishing that the outing was for more than one day. Then, Lance spotted me and welcomed me.

Lance was a very friendly guy, and no matter who he came across, he could easily befriend them. He had black hair that curved slightly away from his forehead, showing off his black eyes. He wore a white shirt underneath a light blue half-zipped sleeveless jacket. He also wore gray jeans with matching grayish white sneakers.

Yuna had her black hair tied up into a ponytail in the back, while a bang framed the right side of her face. She wore a blue shirt with the words _Lovely Gal_ imprinted in pinkish red colour on the front. She also wore light blue jeans and blue-themed sneakers. Blue is her favourite colour, believe me, I know. It's been her lucky colour ever since Grade 1, or so she claimed.

Dylan had messy light brown hair. He wore a white shirt with a red collar, and dark-blue-almost-black pants that reached slightly beneath his knees. His shirt was tucked out, giving him a more 'cool' look. I could tell he came through the muddy shortcut from the school for who-knows-why, because his favourite white sneakers were splattered with wet sticky mud.

Minnie, like Yuna, also had her short black hair tied up. She wore a pink shirt with a glittery flower design on it, and she wore light blue jeans and pink sneakers. Pink here and there. Believe it or not, Minnie and Dylan weren't exactly good friends, but I managed to help them settle their differences and at least stop quarreling At least when I was around. Don't ask me what happened when I left, though.

"Hey there, Hiroto!" Lance called out.

"I almost thought you weren't coming," Minnie said.

"Considering your brother's..." Dylan's voice trailed off. I knew he held his tongue so he wouldn't hurt my feelings. My brother _was_ pretty rough. "Well, the important thing is you're here."

"Well, red-head, did you even get his permission?" Yuna teased. She knew more than any outsider that my brother was strict considering she... never mind.

"No," I replied blankly.

We joked a little longer before the bus pulled up to a stop beside us. The students lined up and entered, followed by a few teachers. We didn't have to show them any forms or applications, as they expected us to be totally honest in front of our family. You know, for adults, they're quite gullible.

The journey to the beach took about an hour on the bus. I was lucky school was specially scheduled to end at ten o'clock today, otherwise we'd have no time to enjoy ourselves. I sat by the window watching the scenery, with Lance sitting beside me. He was reading some sort of fantasy book, but I was too excited (and a little nervous, but let's leave it at 'excited') to notice.

Yuna was munching on some biscuits to satisfy her hunger in the seat in front of me. Minnie, sitting next to Yuna, often adjusted her hair in the mirror as though it was never perfect enough. Dylan, the only one sitting at the other side of the bus, was reading some books on computerized items. I noticed my sister, Yuki, shooting angry looks at me from the first few front seats, but I didn't let that bother me. I was not going to be intimidated by my sister this time.

We got off the bus at around eleven to twelve o'clock at a resort. The beach was okay, I guess. At least it wasn't polluted. Before I knew it, over half the students were already dressed up in swimsuits and running down the beach. Some girls were watching a guy surfing on the waves, purposely asking for attention. Others were building sandcastles so large you'd think it was for a royal hamster.

"You are so dead, Hiroto," Yuki told me as soon as she caught up with me, but I didn't mind. When was I never dead at home?

"Yeah, whatever," I shrugged. "Now please don't disturb my free time."

As she left, I felt something fly towards my head. I turned and, to my surprise, found that it was a soccer ball. I somersaulted backwards and spun my body on my hands, kicking the ball away with my right leg. Yeah, I could do stuff like that. Did I also mention that I was part of the school's official soccer team? Oh, right, I did. Sorry.

The ball flew back to its owner, Lance, who was smiling in delight. "You want to go another round?"

Behind him were Dylan, Yuna and Minnie, who were giving me looks like they expected me to have improved a whole lot. Lance, Dylan, Yuna and Minnie were also in my soccer team. It's hard to believe, but it's true. Lance was a midfielder, Minnie was a defender, Dylan was a goalkeeper and Yuna was a striker along with me. And since I was usually cooped up at home, Lance was the co-captain of the team.

We stopped for lunch at around one o'clock at the hotel. Lance and I grabbed some cheeseburgers, Dylan took a sandwich, while Yuna and Minnie shared a set of fried chicken wings. Even though I usually eat this food, I have to admit the food at this hotel was much better. After that, we got back to having fun, as we were all aware this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

We were enjoying ourselves as we went a few more rounds before we heard screams coming from the ocean. People were running here and there, trying to get away from the water as quick as possible. It took me a few moments to realize why. There was a whirlpool swirling madly not too far from the coast, which was practically impossible. There was also a small girl struggling to get out of the waters, clawing at the sand.

I rushed to help at once. I dived in and got the surprise of my life. The one pulling her wasn't the current of the waves, but a monster. I said 'monster' because it didn't fit the description of any animal I knew about, and trust me, I know a lot of animals. I had to memorize it from an encyclopedia in science class, and it was _not_ easy.

The thing had yellow scaly skin with orange fur on its back. It crept on all fours, using its fanged mouth to try and pull the girl into the ocean. Its teeth must not have been so sharp as the girl's leg wasn't bleeding. It had a row of spikes going down its back, and its webbed-feet seemed to be able to grasp the sand pretty well.

I kicked the monster in the face without thinking. The girl went rolling up the beach, but she got up and ran for her life. Me? I was engaged in a battle with a freakish monster. I didn't know how I could stand underwater with the beach being so shallow, when I noticed that the whirlpool was pulling us closer to the depths of the ocean. I swam all the way up and realized with a start that I was already twenty feet from the beach.

I struggled to get free, but the monster bit my leg (it didn't hurt, but it did feel annoying) and dragged me deeper. I was no match for its webbed-feet, which worked much better underwater than my hands did. No matter where I clawed at, I found that I was still going down. My vision started to go fuzzy, and I knew that my oxygen would run out anytime soon.

With luck, I managed to nail the creature in the eye with my free foot, and I swam up to the surface. I took a deep breath of air as soon as I could, and swam as fast as I could back to the beach. There were no students watching anymore, as though they'd all ran inside for rest. I ran up the sandy beach when I stopped in my tracks. Call me a lunatic, but I could've sworn something in my brain was telling me not to run.

I looked back and saw the monster slowly stepping up from the water, approaching slowly on all fours. It crushed a surfboard under its foot, breaking it in two easily. Why I wasn't running, I didn't know, as I could easily tell that, if this creature didn't scratch me or bite me to death, he'd certainly be able to simply crush me or suffocate me to death.

The monster leapt at me, looking at me like I was his first ever meal in a thousand years. It curved into a ball and rolled towards me. I only had enough time to jump to one side, saving my vital organs but leaving a minor cut on my right arm. It was a miracle I even had time to evade the hit, seeing as the speed it came at me from was probably more than 70 kilometres per hour.

I tried formulating a plan while continuously dodging those razor sharp blades. There was still some food left behind by the tourists and students. Maybe I could lure it into a trap, and, I don't know, run? But if the monster was only looking for food, it wouldn't have kept chasing me all around the beach, now would it? I was running out of time, as the monster seemed to be better at aiming with every attempt.

"Hey, there you are!" a voice suddenly said from behind me. It was a cute voice, something like... sorry, I'm feeling too disturbed right now to think of a way to describe it. Maybe it's because I'm trying to run for my life?

I turned backwards and saw a blue creature falling from the sky, creating a small crater as he landed in the sand. The lower part of its face and front part of its body was white, whereas the rest of its body was blue. It had two crooked and pointed ears. There was a small yellow 'V' sign on its forehead, as well as a single yellow tear-shaped mark on each of its cheeks. Its hands were balled up into fists, and its legs had claws that could've shredded iron like tissues.

"I've been looking all over for you!" the blue monster said.

"What?" was the only reply I had the courage to say. There were two monsters surrounding me, and my only thought now was whether I'd be eaten by the yellow sea monster, or the blue sky monster. Kind of a hard decision, huh?

Once more, the sea monster rolled towards me. Then the blue one did something insane. It jumped in from the side and smacked it, redirecting it into a sandcastle. The sea monster struggled to get out, but water and sand do form pretty strong mud around these parts. I guess those useless hamster-sized castles came in useful after all.

"Calm down!" the blue monster said. "I won't hurt you!"

Yeah right, that's what most bullies say before they pound you into oblivion. Trust me, I speak from experience.

Suddenly, the sea creature broke free from its sandy prison and smacked into the blue one. As freaked out as I was now, I would rather get hit than let it hit someone, or something, that had saved my life. I don't know why, but I was starting to trust the blue monster. I guess it must've been the fact that it didn't try to annihilate me on the spot like the other one?

I grabbed one of the spikes and pulled it up. I swung it round and round before letting it go, throwing it into the sky. My little blue friend recovered quickly and bounced into the sky, hot on the sea monster's tail. It unleashed fury with its rapid punches and the resulting shock wave sent both monsters flying – the sea monster towards the ocean and the sky monster towards the beach.

I must've been bonkers, as I had the chance to run, yet I went to check on my blue little friend.

"You okay?" I asked.

He looked dazed, lying in the middle of a deep sand crater. "I... like... chocolate..." he said randomly. His eyes were still swirling like he'd been on a ridiculous roller coaster ride.

"Coming from a weirdo like you, I guess that's going to be a yes," I said.

The sea monster came charging at me again, but then a sudden nerve in me tingled. It was like a reaction or a nerve was trying to take command. Though my life was at an edge, I let it take over. Then, something bizarre happened to me. I grabbed the sky monster's hand and used it as a bat to smack the sea monster. The sky monster then kicked the sea monster in the face before launching me at it.

I thought I was a goner, but I managed to catch the sea monster in midair, placing the force and momentum from my boosted flight into a single super-punch. Then, I grabbed onto its spike and spun it around, before letting it go. The last I saw of it, it was sailing through the sky like an out-of-control plane. And, somehow, I'd landed safely on my two feet.

I fell down on the sand hard on my butt, still freaked out at what had just happened. The blue monster did the same thing, but he probably did it out of fatigue instead.

"Sure is tough being a digidestined, huh?" it asked me. I was taken aback. A digidestined? What in the world was that? I was about to ask it when it clamped a hand over its mouth. "Whoops, can you do me a favour and forget that last part?"

"Why don't I just forget about you? That'd be much easier," I know that wasn't the right thing to do, but still, my mind was racing with questions. What are you? What's your name? What do they call you? Do you know who attacked me? Where did you come from? How did you get here? What did you want? But I just kept silent.

"You can't just _forget_ about me, because we're destined to be together," the creature said. Then, he got up. "My name is Veemon."

I got up as well, getting to the part of introducing myself, when he head butted me on the forehead. You should've felt it. Correction, you shouldn't have felt it. It was like metal, it was like diamond, it was harder than the hardest material you could ever think of with the hardest brain around. Okay, I've officially overused the word 'hard' now, haven't I?

"What was that for? I retorted in anger, rubbing my painful forehead.

"That's how we say hello from where I come from," he explained. He was about to do that again when I stopped his head with my fist. Big mistake. Now my fist was also as numb as my head was dizzy.

"Oh no, you're in my world now, and _this_ is how we say hello," I said as I extended my painless hand. He must not have gotten what I meant, as he head butted my hand instead. Great, now both my hands were in big pain. I was definitely going to have ugly handiwork for the next week or so. "No, you shake it, not head butt it," I said.

He took my hand with both hands and then shook my hand with all his might. If I weren't any stronger, my hand would've been ripped off and my eyeballs would've popped out of my head. "This is a weird way of saying hello, but it's fun!" Veemon said. He kept shaking my hand until I felt me bones tearing off.

"No! You do it lightly," I said. "This is going to take a lot of work." Then my mind floated back to the term 'digidestined', and my curiosity peaked my pain. "You were saying something about digidestined just now."

"Oh, right. Well, you're a digidestined."

"I got that part already," I replied, rubbing my arm.

"And you're called that because you've been destined by one of the great powers of the digital world to be with a digimon," Veemon explained. I was slowly catching up, which was abnormal as I usually understood things faster than anyone.

I just nodded my head as Veemon explained several other things to me, like what the digital world was, what a digidestined should do (save the digital world and the real world, though I was clueless at how I was supposed to do that), what digimon were (digital beings from the digital world), and what the digimon that had just attacked me was called (Gizamon).

Little did I know that my life had just taken a sharp turn towards danger.

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><p>How was that? I know it's a little longer than my previous story, so I hope that, by doing so, I didn't increase the number of mistakes in this chapter. Please read and review to tell me what you thought of it. Thank you.<p>

Name: Hiroto Kiyoshi  
>Age: 11<br>Appearance: Red hair with a single strand streaking through his face, blue eyes, pale-skinned, black shirt under an orange jacket, gray jeans, and white sneakers.  
>Personality: Is sometimes boring to hang out with due to him having a difficult life, but is cheerful and fun to hang around with if you know him well. Always considers the options before jumping into a fight, unless lives are at stake.<br>History: Hiroto is called the 'prodigy of the new generation' at the age of four. Then, when he was eight, his brother and sisters probably shunned him for this reason. Therefore, he treats his friends better than he does his brother and sisters. Hiroto comes from a wealthy family, but never shows off unlike his twin sister, Yuki.  
>Likes: Studies, Sports, People who aren't self-centered<br>Dislikes: Rinji, Mai, Yuki, Housework  
>Pros: Studies, Soccer, Strategizing<br>Cons: Cooking

Digimon Partner: Veemon  
>Personality: A little goofy and clumsy. Quite hard-headed, both literally and figuratively. Loves playing games that relate to hard heads.<br>Likes: Chocolate, Games that include literal banging of heads  
>Dislikes: Mostly bitter stuff<p>

If any of you find any mistakes, grammar-wise or vocabulary-wise, or even plot line-wise, then please tell me. It'll save me the trouble of making yet another rewrite, and it'll save all of you the trouble of reading another rewrite. So, once again, please read and review.


	2. New People

Dowski  
><em>Seems a bit more descriptive than last time, though I could be wrong, haha. I can understand the re-write though, so no big on that part :P<br>_Thanks, and you're not wrong, 'cause this _is_ more descriptive than last time. I tend to try and improve myself after every re-write, but I hope this is the last rewrite I'm going to have to do.

Tendou Souji  
><em>This opening chapter is a little more descriptive than the original story's rewrite. Strange when you say it. This story is the original story's rewrite's rewrite. Quite a mouthful if I do say myself.<br>The only difference I detected was that Yuki asked for a coke instead of orange juice.  
>The feeling of disappointment is there but it's fine. This grants you a lot more time to plan for the Digital World arc. You pretty much have to just refer to your other story's opening arc and just add a few things.(Or cut them, since you claimed that the day which Hiroto meets Alexandria took too many chapters)<br>I once gave you a comment on how your portrayal of Seishirou's 'yin' half was a bit off. Hopefully, you can correct the mistake. Research Ulquoirra just to be safe.  
>Update soon.<br>~Tendou Souji~  
><em>I don't really get what you mean when you say this story is the original's story's rewrite's rewrite, but I guess I'll just blindly agree. And no, the difference so far may be Yuki asking for a coke, but I've got some new things planned. I feel disappointed that you're disappointed, but it can't be helped. And no, this isn't just to plan for the Digital World arc. And I'll see what I can dig up about Ulquoirra.

Super garurumon  
><em>Didn't I see somethnig about this earlier? Oh well.<br>Adult's ARE pretty gulible,all you have to do is butter 'em up and have a good excuse and history and you're off the hook.  
>For an evil oc can you please look at my reviews for etiger's 'Next Generation' fic I don't want to bother you with 3-4 reveiws based on character description.<br>I hate Yuki and company so much, too much twin yin and not enough yang, you should kill them.  
><em>Maybe you did see the original form of this story before. And yeah, some adults are gullible, but not all of them. I've got some of the basics of your OC already. And yes, I should kill them, but then again, no, I can't just kill off the cast.

Phantomgirl96  
><em>LOVE IT! This is one of the best OC stories out there! :D<br>Do I need to resubmit my OC?  
><em>Thanks! And no, you need not resubmit your OC.

Phantomgirl96  
><em>I'm going to resubmit my better OC<br>I use a premade OC form...  
>I'm on my ipod so tell me if I forgot anything.<br>Name: Danielle (Dani) Pennykettle  
>Nationality: American<br>Age: 14,  
>Gender: female<br>Hair: Brown hair to her waist with light green highlights  
>Eyes: Very dark brown eyes.<br>Clothing: She wears a green tshirt with various sayings. She also wears stained jeans (no rips) or Jean shorts. Her digivice on her belt holding her jeans up (because she's so skinny) and white and black __tennis shoes  
><em>_Family: she lives with her Mom, Dad, and younger sister.  
>History: She lived a normal Life, but not without her problems. She is lucky enough to just make ends<br>meet with a roof over her head. She would be relentlessly teased because she wasn't popular and she is very weird since she hung out with mostly boys.  
>Digivice Colors: Black and neon green<br>Digimon Personality: He keeps her from being too serious and is a total jokester.  
>Personality: (Give 10 sentences at the least, please) She's very perky and tries to keep the mode light. She's a total tomboy, always fighting for what she believes, even if it's wrong. She's headstrong and determinded. She will fight till the end to protect the ones she loves. She can get very serious, and this causes her to zone out, and not listen to what people around her are saying. This causes her to forget stuff, and get her in trouble. Shes not afraid to try something new, and is very openminded. She can out run most boys and out climb. She loves to play sports and hang out with the boys. She loves to surf and read. Her weaknesses are she can be shy and she's not very good with her social skills. Her quirks is she tilts her head when shes thinking.<br>Digimon: Terriermon X (Black and neon green instead of white and green)  
>Digivolution Line: Gummymon, Terriermon X, Gargomon X, Rapidmon X, (Same looking but more powerful) (MegaGargomon is smaller and like Gallantmon sized) Megagargomon X<br>Accessories: Large brown sunglasses, A green hairband to keep her hair out of her way, and a Australian cowboy hat (google it)  
>Is that OK?<br>_Uhh, I was going to say that you didn't need to resubmit your OC, but I can see some improvements in this one. Thanks for the extra info. And no, you didn't forget anything.

NovelistOfTheSky  
><em>could it be a possibility instead of doing another rewrite, you just focus on improving the quality of the future of the story? Just a suggestion. The rewrite, is yet again better. look forward to seeing the future improvments. You can use my Oc as usual.<em>  
>Ooh, I can sense your anger in this review. Well, it's not that I wouldn't want to improve the story, it's just that I <em>can't<em>. I've already listed out some of the major problems in the previous story, and I can't just simply re-post those chapters. Hopefully, this is going to be the last rewrite I write, otherwise I have the heart to close down this story.

pokemon fan 1991  
><em>Nice job on the plot!Will Drake will be there soon and I want him to go to Hiroto's school. I have a new bio for him. He will still be bad guy, but he will help the digidestined sometime. He also in love with Mai<em>  
>Yes, Drake will arrive soon. And I'm sorry, but the fact that Drake goes to Hiroto's school and is in love with his sister won't be available until a little later in the story.<p>

Something dictionary related  
><em>Are you accepting brand new OCs?<br>Name: Mochizuki Yasahiro  
>Age: 17 (adjust if you need to)<br>Appearance: Black, long hair. Hazel eyes. Sometimes wears glasses for reading. Black jumper, blue cargo pants, brown shoes. Walks with two crutches for support.  
>Gender: Male<br>Family: He has a younger sister and a father, who all live together.  
>Nationality: Japanese<br>History: He was involved with a horrific ferry accident, which overturned when he was much younger. __His mother saved him and went back to help others but she disappeared. It was a leisure cruise between those two and the rest of the family stayed home. He was originally born on Kobe.  
>Personality: A quiet person which, despite circumstances, has a relatively cheerful outlook on life. He has a good relationship with the rest of his immediate family. He is not very athletic although he is good at board games. He likes to do and is good Art and carpentry (and secretly likes to do image stitching!). He is open-minded and very approachable. He does have a few friends around school.<br>Digivice: Dark green bracelet with yellow stripes\buttons.  
>Digimon: Bukamon, Gomamon, Ikkakumon, Zudamon, Vikemon<br>Digimon's personality: Placcis, sometimes too much to the annoyance of his partner. Can blend in as a seal. Can become concerned for his partner.  
>So Hiroshi is a bit of a prankster now?<em>  
>Thanks for the OC submit. And yes, I'm still accepting OCs. And who's Hiroshi? If you're talking about Hiroto, then yes, I've made him a little more out-of-line than before, as stated by someone that Hiroto was lacking any character flaws.<p>

Super garurumon  
><em>oops that's etiger1995. but a well in GENERAL, NAME-Dakota Shade(ha! DS) AGE-18/APPEAR- lean &toned 5ft 7,mid tone skin,short,spikey stringy black hair& green eyes.  
>Digimon-BABY II- Pagumon, ROOKIE-Demi devimonCHAMPION-vilemon(or)Fla Wizardmon/PERFECT-Metal Phantomon (or)Asuramon/MEGA-Ghoulmon (or) Marsmon_  
>Yeah, thanks for the hint on the name. I found it. And I've already collected most of the info from your reviews, so you don't have to continuously submit information.<p>

_I wonder if your accepting OC's. If so, here's mine.  
>Name: Nando Mishizawa<br>Age: You can decide  
>Gender: Male<br>Nationality: Half American, half Japanese  
>Looks: Short and untidy navy blue hair, thin, medium height, grey eyes<br>Clothes: Jacket over a muscle shirt, long pants, black shoes  
>Personality: Not very sociable, slightly pessimistic, very loyal to his friends, laughs easily<br>Background: He met his partner when he saved her life  
>Digivice: Silver and dark blue<br>Partner: Lunamon  
>Gender: Female<br>Personality: Kind, motherly, good at taking care of others, she helps him be more sociable  
>Digivolotions: Moonmon(In-training), Lekismon(Champion), Crescemon(Ultimate), Dianamon(Mega)<br>_Yes, I'm still accepting OCs.

Rc 1121  
><em>Name: Augustus Terra jr.<br>Age: 13  
>Appearance: He is 49 with tan skin and chocolate brown eyes and bushy eyebrows. He wears oval glasses and has Blackish-Brown hair that has a cow lick and a generally bed head look that goes down to his neck. He has a large claw like scar on his back and his body is lean with noticeable muscle.  
>Personality: Gus is fan boy of anime, Movies video games and comic books and is proud of it. He is a slacker and will try to avoid hard work unless it's absolutely needed which causes him to get in trouble a few times. He's cold to new open, but loud and crazy to friends and always tries to make the best of a situation. He treats his digimon more like brothers then partners, though they all have a vritolic <em>_relationship with each other.  
>History: Gus was born and lived in Chicago with his parents Peter and Sandra and lived in an Apartment with decent income. When Gus was 5, his parents were mugged and killed in the park when he was being babysat by his grandfather Augustus. Soon after he went to live with Augustus in his apartment which is above a Boxing Clinic that he owns and he teaches Gus how to fight. He goes to a public school and gets roughly a B average because he forgets to turn in homework and occasionally gets into fights, when he was 6 he was playing on the computer, he got a message saying "come to the digital world" and was transported there. Soon after going there he had met with Missimon who scared him into running right into a Kuwagamon who gave him the scars on his back and was about to kill him only to have the Intraining digimon rescue him by digivoling into Commandramon and Gus gaining his own digivice, but he blacked out right after the battle and woke up back in his room thinking it was just a dream. He then finds out that the Intraining digimon and his digivice came back with him and went to his grandfather to explain what happened and he believed him. For the next six years, the three of them have lived together and eventually meets the other tamersdigidestined through unknown means.  
>Likes: Anime, Video Games, Manga, Steak, Sleeping<br>Dislikes: Bugs, Hard Work,  
>Pros: A Good Strategizer, A Good Fighter, Can really get things done when he puts his mind to it.<br>Cons: Lazy, Overconfident.  
>Digimon Partner: Commandramon<br>Partner digimon: 1. Bonmon, Missimon, Commandramon, Sealsdramon, Tankdramon, Darkdramon  
>Personality of Digimon: Commandramon is a fast and active digimon unlike his tamer who wants everything done as soon as loves using military jargon and is slightly trigger happy but is nice and funny. He never use's pronouns at all with the execption of "SIR!" which is resevered for Arel. Despite the arguments they get into, he and Arel are best friends.<br>Likes: Big Explosions, Meat, Fighting.  
>Dislikes: Cheating, Dark Places.<em>  
>Nice bio there. But so far, I have just one question to ask you – is your OC's name Augustus, 'Gus', or Arel?<p>

RazenX  
><em>Good chapter, and good luck on the rewrite. It was nice to see the expanded scenes and more description. Also, the fact that you are addressing Hiroto's near godhood. Can't wait for more-X<em>  
>Thanks. Now, after I look back on the old story, I really see that Hiroto is somewhat godly when, for example, he takes down Cyberdramon with his own bare hands.<p>

Everyone, before we continue onto the story, please note that if you find any mistakes, any at all, or any plot holes, please notify me immediately so that this is going to be the last re-write I am forced to do. Thank you. And now, onto the story.

* * *

><p>Digimon Miracles<br>The Start of Miracles  
>Chapter 2: New People<p>

I woke up the next day, feeling excited despite still being in my PJs. Every Saturday, I would meet up with my four friends at Lance's place. It was somewhat the unofficial meeting place of our group, since it was so conveniently located between each of our houses, which would save us time. As punishment for not having to walk anywhere, Lance would have to prepare breakfast for us at his house. Hey, it's a fair deal. Well, almost a fair deal, but who cares about the details?

Yesterday had been hectic. I had to stuff Veemon in my bag to hide him from my friends (which I felt guilty of) and the rest of the students for the whole ride back home. Then, I had to rush off and 'ditch' my friends. Once again, _that_ didn't feel quite home, I had to sneak up to my room to avoid Rinji and Mai's wrath, which was (weirdly) easier done than said, seeing as they weren't at home. Then, I had to figure out how to hide Veemon from my brother and sister should they intrude into my room, but all I drew was a blank.

That night was quite annoying, what with having to apologize to a crying Yuki (those are just crocodile tears, people, so don't be fooled by the actress), and having my ear bitten off by Mai for 'abandoning' Yuki. In my defense, she's a few minutes older than me, okay? So, she should be the one looking after me, not the other way around. Other than those few events, I also had to teach Veemon the basics of human culture, though I doubted that he understood the concept of 'sleeping on a bed'.

I got changed immediately, and was about to leave my room when I remembered about Veemon. Last night, he had insisted on sleeping on the floor. He refused my offer for a sleeping bag, too. The result? He was freezing and shivering all night in his sleep until I covered him with a cotton blanket. I found him where I left him – on the floor to the right of my bed. He was _still_ sleeping. Maybe the monster-fighting from yesterday tired him out a little.

But there was something weird about him today. Last night, when I had thrown the blanket over him, it had only covered him up to his neck. Now, he seemed to be completely submerged underneath the cotton blanket. I tore the cloth off of him, and was quite surprised at what I saw. Sleeping there was a miniature Veemon that was at most half the size of the previous Veemon.

As I looked closer, I saw that the 'V' sign on his head had disappeared, along with the tear-shaped marks on his cheeks. Was this a normal thing? 'Cause I'm not too fond of the idea of a shrinking digimon living with me, although this did ease my burden a bit. For example, now he'd actually fit in my backpack. Maybe his hunger level had also decreased, since he'd finished six chocolate bars last night before bed (don't ask me what happened to all that sugar, 'cause I do _not_ want to know).

"Hey, Veemon," I shook him, hoping that the digimon on the floor was still Veemon.

"Umm... yeah?" he asked, blinking his eyes and licking his lips. He must've been dreaming about chocolate before I woke him up from his chocolate-y paradise.

"You're... umm... well, let's just say you look..." I didn't know how to put it. If this didn't happen often, then it'd probably freak him into screaming. And the scream would attract my brother to my room, and believe me, the first two things he'll throw out are Veemon and I. "You've looked bigger..."

Veemon looked at himself, and to my surprise, he didn't yell out and scream. Instead, he looked me in the eye with a confused expression and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Well, you look... smaller, than last night..." I continued slowly.

"Oh, _this_?" Veemon said it like it was no big deal. "This is just what happens when we digimon run out of power. We degenerate into a smaller form to conserve strength. We do it when we're very weak, or whenever we want to, I guess."

Suddenly, I forgot the 'keep quiet' rule I had made up. "Oh sure, you couldn't have remembered this yesterday when I was having trouble placing you in the bag?"

Veemon frowned. "Well, I just thought I'd make my first appearance cool..."

"Uggh, never mind..." I sighed. I hurriedly took my backpack and placed Veemon in it, glad that the miniature Veemon didn't take up as much space as before.

I rushed down the stairs past a very annoying sister, Yuki, who was combing her hair. I heard a scream, and I could only hope that she had accidentally ripped off her hair with her own brush. Probably a patch of hair, if I was lucky. But I didn't dare take the risk of looking back in fear that it'd give Yuki some time to catch up to me. If she did, there was no telling what'd happen to me, or Veemon. So, I just continued running ahead and I zipped out of the open gates like a cheetah.

I reached Lance's house in record time. No one else was there except me, which was pretty awkward considering the first one to reach this place was usually Yuna. She and Lance had been going out behind our backs for two weeks in Grade 3 before the rest of us found out, and their relationship is still going on well. Alright, I'll admit I teased them a bit, but really, it was just because I... I mean, I... uh, forget that part. Anyway, let's just say I respect their relationship, 'kay?

Before I rang the bell, Yuna came sprinting into the garden. She was drenched in sweat, though I didn't see why as she lived pretty close. Then, Dylan ran right into me in a hurry, and we both collapsed onto the floor in a heap. Dylan got off me, but as I was about to stand up, Minnie ran in, skidded a little on a small pond and slammed right into me as well. I was getting fed up being used as a human cushion, even if it had only happened twice this morning.

"Hey, so it seems everyone's here," Lance welcomed as he opened the door.

"But not all of us are as okay and clean as we want to be," I muttered as I wiped off some dirt and dust from my shirt. Veemon was struggling in my backpack, probably pained from the two times of hitting the ground, but it wasn't as though I could let him out yet, so I elbowed him to keep quiet.

"So, there's buttered toast on the table, the jams are there as well, there's orange juice in the jar, some bacon frying in the kitchen, and some milk in the fridge," Lance pointed out. "Help yourselves."

Soon, we were digging in like hungry hyenas that haven't eaten in years. I took a plate of bacon with some toast, and my friends came up with some combinations as well, some ordinary, some crazy, some out-of-this-world, but like I said, who cares about details?

I didn't feel right to keep secrets from my friends, and I didn't feel right to let Veemon starve like that, so I took a risk. I was sure at least one of them would faint as soon as I showed them Veemon, but they did the opposite. Yuna actually reached out to pat him on the head and commented that he was cute. I think it got Veemon a little mad as he took his revenge by ingesting every single slice of bread and every single drop of orange juice there was. I didn't know he had a taste for anything other than chocolate before.

"You really should keep him away from Rinji," Minnie said as Veemon munched on three slices of toast at a time and then gulped down straight from the jar.

"Yeah, no way Rinji'd let you keep this... thing in the house without his permission," Dylan added in. "Right?"

"You know Rinji," Yuna voiced out. "And I think I need not say anymore."

"Well, where do you keep it?" Lance asked.

"_Him_, where do I keep _him_. Veemon's a he, not an it," I explained. "And regarding the matter, I'm still just randomly moving him around to keep him out of Rinji's hands. Or sight."

"Well, enough with the talking," Yuna said. "Let's dig in before your... Veemon, finishes every single crumb of bread there is!"

After breakfast, we watched a little television, then went out for some games. We played hopscotch (after refusing Veemon's offer for 'Who Has The Hardest Head'), then tag (once again, we refused Veemon's offer for 'Head-Bang!') and then finally we went to the playground next to Lance's house. Here, Veemon was free to pound his head against the wall as much as he liked, but I was worried the entire foundation would collapse.

At around lunch, we all decided that we'd all go out for some pizza. We couldn't let Veemon be publicly seen, so we stuffed him in my bag despite his protests. My friends all walked behind me, shielding the bag from view as best as they could, since I didn't think the police would take too kindly to us bringing living creatures around in backpacks. They'd bring us to the police station or worse, to my brother (yes, if I have to take chances between him and getting arrested, I think getting arrested has less casualties).

The five of us shared three pizzas amongst ourselves. One was too spicy for Lance, another was too sour for Minnie, and the last one was too seafood-ish for Dylan. For me, the first one was okay, the second didn't have enough pineapple, and the third one... I don't know how it tasted, really. It was finished before I was able to grab a slice, let alone a bite.

We were walking along a pavement when something caught our attention. Or at least _my_ attention. My friends were still chatting happily behind me, careful not to let anyone see my moving bag. I focused my attention to an alley not too far in front, and I heard some sounds. Not the 'cat-screeching-dog-barking' type of sound, but some gruff voices followed by whimpers and sobs. I thought I'd imagined it, but then after listening for a little longer, I heard the same sounds again. There was no way this was my imagination.

"Hey, guys, listen," I shushed them. I had to elbow Veemon twice to shut him up, since the first time I had accidentally hit Lance in the ribs. "Do you hear that?"

My friends perked up their ears and it seemed to catch their attention as well.

"Yeah, it sounds like someone's being mugged," Minnie suggested.

"Or maybe they're just having drama practice," Dylan countered optimistically.

"Oh sure, have drama practice in a dark alleyway instead of a real stage? Nice thinking, Dylan," Yuna said. "I think someone's being bullied or beaten up in there, and by the whimpers, I think it's a girl."

I was surprised Lance hadn't said anything since he was usually ready to 'serve justice'. It was also a little weird how he didn't backup Yuna's suggestion, which he usually did. However, I guess he had the right to stay silent for a while. I _had_ hit him in the ribs pretty hard when I was aiming for Veemon (sorry, but he was just standing way too close).

Yuna dashed off ahead of us, which was risky considering Veemon was now moving about more violently than ever. He must've been mad that I had elbowed him, probably in the nose. But we ran off after Yuna. If she thought something was wrong, then something was definitely wrong. She _is_the smartest girl of the group. Note, I said _girl_, not _person_. Besides, maybe my running will reduce suspicion of the moving bag.

We had to make about half a dozen turns (what do people do with such long alleyways?) before we reached the end. And there, we saw what she'd expected to find. Two guys, one short and one tall, plus a girl were standing around another girl, who was whimpering in the centre. Her arms were a bit bruised, and her face was littered with dirt and stained with her own tears.

The girl in the centre wasn't anyone I knew. She had waist-length hair, which was an unusual silver colour. Her eyes were dark green. She was wearing a white tank top underneath a pale purple crop jacket. She also wore a black miniskirt, which almost completely covered the spandex shorts underneath. She had on black tennis shoes, so I guess she was a great tennis player, considering the colour of tennis shoes in my school resembled the professionalism of a certain player. And black was the highest rank, even higher than my sister, who only had blue tennis shoes.

"Why don't you just run along back home, like maybe, to your grave?" the girl in the middle said, and the guy to the left of her laughed. The tall one to her right just smirked. I could tell they were doing that to please the girl in the middle, as that joke was _not_ funny at all.

"Your silver-coloured hair isn't wanted here!" the short guy added in. Once again, _not_ funny.

"I bet your parents are never at home because they're always blinded when they look at your hair!" the girl teased. The silver-haired girl was already wheezing. If this kept up, she might faint due to the lack of oxygen.

This was probably too much for Yuna to bear, as she marched up to them and faked a cough. The three bullies turned around, looking her in the eye menacingly. Yuna folded her arms and tapped her feet, as though waiting for them to make their first move. Okay, as supportive as I'm trying to be, there was only one stupid question going on in my mind now: was she trying to save the poor silver-haired girl, or get pounded to death by a group of unknown strangers?

The short guy charged at her first, but he doubled over in pain after she kneed him in the stomach. Even I was shocked. After seeing her friend crumple on the floor, the girl gripped her fists and ran at Yuna. Her balled fists showed that she was no ordinary girl. She probably fought a lot on the streets. But Yuna took care of her with a fist to her chin. She fell backwards, and fainted in under two seconds. Aww, come on. We were just eleven, and these people were what, fifteen, sixteen?

"You're going to pay for beating up my gang like that," the final one said. He was tan, and had messy and partly spiky hair. His red shirt and blue jeans didn't make him look too savage, but the sword on his back did. Why didn't anyone arrest him for bringing a longsword around? Oh right, maybe they didn't want to be sliced to pieces while dialing the police.

He grabbed his longsword from his back and took a step forward. Looking at the razor-sharp blade, Yuna's confidence began to waver. I could see her legs shaking a little, and I could tell she was trying to put on a brave act. No good. The guy ran forth and brought his sword down in a dangerous arc. Instinctively, I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back. The crazed man's sword made a small hole about three inches deep in the cement.

He ran at me again, his sword sparking against the floor. It took a miracle, but his sword missed my by a few millimetres and impaled itself into the ground. I kicked him out of the way and took his sword. Or at least I _tried_ to take his sword. It was as heavy as lead. The guy kicked me backwards and took his weapon back. He held it like it weighed nothing, whereas I was unable to even budge it. How strong was this guy, actually?

"You're particularly skilled," the guy said. "I'll let you live, for now, but don't think you've escaped the wrath of Drake Ren." With that, he threw a smoke bomb onto the floor and disappeared in a flash.

Oh, sure, being samurai was not enough. Now, he had to copy lame catchphrases from old movies I watched, and he also had to act like a ninja? Was he a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' fan?

"Hey, you okay, Hiroto?" Lance asked, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"What happened?" Yuna asked as she helped the silver-haired girl up. She was probably one or two years older than us. She was still panting, but before she got to tell us anything, she fainted in Yuna's arms. "We have to get her to a hospital, quick!"

"I'll call the-" Dylan's voice was swallowed up by an explosion somewhere about a block away.

"I'll check it out, you guys take care of her!" I yelled. It was probably some terrorists, but Veemon's intense wriggling in my bag told me otherwise. It was a digimon's doing. I rushed towards the location as quickly as my legs would carry me, which, as I'd like to admit, is very fast.

As it turns out, the explosion took place a little further than a block away. An apartment that was scheduled for demolition had been blown up, but not by the authorities. I saw that the entire place was on fire, with no sign of any police around. The police should at least be keeping traffic while the dynamite was being set up. But my heart nearly leapt out of my throat when I saw the kid standing in an alleyway next to the burning building, talking eagerly to someone.

Upon closer inspection, I saw that the kid was none other than Drake Ren, the guy who had tried to slice me to pieces minutes ago. And I saw that he wasn't talking to some_one_, but some_thing_. It was a metre-tall robotic digimon coated with red paint. Its chest, hands and legs were white in colour, with black, blunt claws. In its right hand was a three feet long microphone with two points sticking out at the top and one at the bottom. Did it sing songs so bad its enemies cried to death?

"Get away from that thing!" I yelled. "It's dangerous!" I was actually talking to the digimon to get away from Drake, not vice versa, but I think they misunderstood.

Drake smiled at me like I had just walked into his trap. He grinned at me in a crazily-fashioned way, as though he'd have his revenge on me sooner than he'd thought, but no later than he'd preferred. And I mean it when I say this – I would've preferred him to take his revenge some other time in my life, like probably _never_.

"You may be good at hand-to-hand combat, but let's see how you do when it's two against one," Drake said, and yelled, "Shoutmon, attack!" Oh, so the thing's name was _Shoutmon_. Maybe the microphone amplified its voice so that it could bust the enemies' eardrums?

Shoutmon seemed to hesitate a while, before running at me. He got ready to scratch me, but I turned and he ripped a gigantic hole in my bag. Veemon leapt out, still small, and started complaining about how crowded it was in the bag, how he'd suffocated, and how he'd preferred never to ever go back in there. He was right, in a way, when he said he'd never be returning there. I just simply said 'Yes, yes, yes,' to calm him down and get him ready for the fight.

"Can you change back to your bigger form?" I asked, evading another strike from Shoutmon and then a slash from Drake.

"You mean digivolve? Sure I can!" Veemon shone brightly, and for a second I was afraid Drake would take advantage of my blindness to attack, but when he was done, he was the metre-tall digimon I once knew.

Once again, Shoutmon flew at me, but Veemon head butted him into the burning building. I was worried he'd melt, 'cause that mean I would've killed a digimon, and I still don't fancy the idea of 'killing', even if it's not done on a human. However, when Shoutmon reappeared, he was still in one piece, with the exception that he looked a lot angrier than before.

Drake slashed horizontally, but Veemon blocked it with his forehead. The impact sent Veemon flying backwards, and I caught him just in time. Drake then brought his sword down in a wild attempt, and I held up Veemon. Yes, I was crazy enough to hold out Veemon, but he got my message. He braced for impact and knocked the sword with his forehead. I heard a 'clang' and saw that the sword had flown out of his hands and implanted itself into the wall behind him.

Drake was unarmed, so now it was Shoutmon's turn. He ran at me, microphone-first. With a single slash, he shredded off a piece of my cloth. After that, he tried for a spin-slash, but Veemon's head (forehead, actually, but you all probably get the point by now) temporarily caught his microphone in a deadlock, before knocking it away. Shoutmon then proceeded to try and scratch me with his claws, but I evaded his first three strikes. Then, Veemon punched him away, back into the burning building.

Suddenly, I saw Yuna stop outside the alley and heard her yell, "Hiroto! Behind you!"

I turned around and saw Drake running towards me, ready to stab me in the chest with his blade. I managed to sidestep the hit by a hair's breadth (a few millimetres, again), but this led him right to Yuna. He jabbed her neck (with his hand, not the sword, are we clear?) and she fainted on the spot. I was lucky he was able to grab her before she fell, but this only made it worse. He had a hostage, and he'd be able to use it against me as she was my friend.

"Step back or this girl gets it," he warned. To make his 'point', he lifted his longsword to her neck, and I saw a thin line of blood trickle down her neck. Aww, man.

"Okay! Just remove the sword," I negotiated. Taking a few steps back, I finally found out why he'd wanted me and Veemon to do so.

Shoutmon yelled from behind us, "Rock Soul!"

I had only enough time to turn around and see a gigantic floating musical eighth note flying towards me. It hit me in the chest and exploded upon contact. Both Veemon and I tumbled onto the floor in pain. Okay, keep in mind, direct impact equals not good.

We got up slowly and Shoutmon raised his microphone as though ready to hit us with it. "Soul Crusher!" he yelled, and I could somehow sense his fiery emotions, burning brightly in his heart. He dashed at us, and I was about to jump out of the way when my eye caught sight of Yuna, who was still in Drake's possession. Darn, as long as Yuna was there, I had no choice but to be used as target practice. I pushed Veemon out of the way, and Shoutmon whacked my stomach with his mike, before leaping off and landing beside Drake.

Veemon ran to my side. "Are you okay?"

I slowly got to my feet again, facing Drake, and tried formulating a plan in my head. But my mind drew a blank. I had no choice but to be used as target practice as long as Yuna's life was in trouble. I willed myself to stand still, but already my legs were shaking due to the two hits from before, as well as my fear. I told myself, there was no way I was putting Yuna's life in further danger, since she was... I mean, she had helped me with Rinji's dilemmas so many times.

Suddenly, I saw a quick blurry figure of someone kick the sword out of Drake's hand. Even he was surprised. Then came a small metal ball that hit Drake in the back. He fell and let go of Yuna, who fell. I threw Veemon [Veemon, I apologize, but let's argue some other time] towards her, letting her drop onto Veemon's body. Did I mention Veemon also bowled Shoutmon in the process? The figure finally delivered a spinning kick to Drake's back before sprinting away as fast as lightning. The only thing I saw was a strand of brown hair as well as a pair of blue eyes. And the weird part – it had all happened in under five seconds.

Veemon pushed Yuna off him, which was fine by me as long as she was okay. Drake and Shoutmon got up as well, and I ran past them. Figuring that I'd hit them, they got behind me as soon as they could, but my main interest was reuniting with Veemon and checking on Yuna. I tore off a piece of my orange cotton jacket and placed it gently on the wound on her throat to absorb any extra blood. Veemon was, for some reason, watching attentively despite having two assassins in front of him. After I was done treating her, we turned back to face Drake and Shoutmon

Then I got the same tingling sensation I had felt yesterday. My entire body felt like fire, and I felt so energetic that this much glucose would've instantly killed a hippo or an elephant I grabbed Veemon and flung him high up, only to have him come sky-rocketing down like a missile. Shoutmon planned to hold out his microphone to block, but Veemon was quicker. He smashed into Shoutmon and the resulting mini-explosion sent the two digimon back.

I was still not done. I ran towards Drake, and I somehow dodged every single one of his longsword-slashes. I nailed him in the jaw with my fist, and brought him down to the ground with a hit to his back from my heel. I grabbed him up by the collar, and Veemon head butted him in the back. I'd feel sorry for him if his bones broke, but since I didn't hear a 'crack' sound, I have to say I didn't feel sorry for him.

Drake somehow still got up after that nasty impact, and motioned for Shoutmon to follow him. It took me a second to register his next actions, but by then, he had already escaped. I grabbed Yuna's still-motionless body and got away from the burning building as soon as I could, worried that it'd fall on top of me any second. Veemon had the brains to do the same.

Later, I handed Yuna to Lance, who volunteered to walk her back home once she felt better. Then, I proceeded back home with DemiVeemon (that was miniature Veemon's name, and I agreed to call him that even though it seemed particularly weird that a single being would have multiple names) in my backpack. He was still moving about by the time I got to my room, but as Rinji, Mai, or Yuki didn't sense my presence, I felt like I had gotten away with it. For now.

After dinner (I received many glares from my brother and sisters, but that always happens), I 'marched' back to my room at Mai's orders, sneaking in five chocolate bars for Veemon. Incredible how the refrigerator seldom gets empty of chocolate bars, huh? However, I had to hurriedly conceal Veemon with a blanket when there was a knock on my bedroom door, and Yuki came in.

"You really should take better care of your room, Hiroto," she broke the ice, pointing to the fallen blanket that concealed Veemon. "I don't even want to know what's in there."

"So what're you here for?" I asked, getting straight to the point. The quicker Yuki left, the better, as I always say.

She plopped herself next to me on my bed, before freaking me out, "There's going to be a soccer match between us tomorrow. Rinji's orders. You don't like it, you back out." With that, she got up and left me with a very confusing question.

"What...?"

* * *

><p>NovelistOfTheSky, I'm quite curious to know why Will is known by two names in the digital world instead of just one. Phantomgirl96, what Crest do you wish Dani to have?<p>

Name: Drake Ren (by pokemon fan 1991)  
>Age: 16<br>Crest: Fear  
>Appearance: Davis-like hair, dark skin, red shirt, and blue jeans. Has a longsword on his back.<br>Personality: Drake is quiet. He isn't fond of people who favour digimon, as he treats them more as tools to attain his goal. He will also destroy partners that do not give him good results, even when he's not in anger.  
>History: A few years ago, his sister disappeared in the digital world. At the present, he is using all his available resources to try and locate her, and if possible, bring her back to the real world.<br>Likes: Reading books, Cleaning swords, Harassing girls  
>Dislikes: Digimon that are weak<p>

Digimon Partner: Unknown  
>Personality: Unknown<br>Likes: Unknown  
>Dislikes: Unknown<p>

Please read and review!


	3. Bad Day

NovelistOfTheSky  
><em>No anger in the previous review , just a suggestion, admittedly I may have been tired when I wrote it.<br>Good chapter, definately more improvement. Don't always worry so much about the quality, make sure you enjoy it too.  
>The two names I assume are Gaurdian and Saxon?<br>Gaurdian - just from helping around, like rescues or battles/ helping teams.  
>Saxon - because of lightmons strength, his enemies feel he is a very brutual foe. So when they are destroyed and reborn, last thing they remember is being destroyed by Lightmon. Basically just the flip side, he does good but is known for being violent.<br>hope that helps_  
>Well, I'll definitely enjoy my work as long as the readers enjoy it, so, since you enjoy it, I enjoy it too. Thanks for the info on Guardian and Saxon. It really helps. Hope you keep enjoying this story. :D<p>

Phantomgirl96  
><em>Love the new story!<br>Confidence is my crest. Its half of the Courage crest so it looks like a sun setting.  
>Impkat. deviantart. com art/ Crests-for-the-Tamers- 159203980? qo=0&catpath=& order=9&offset=0  
>Search DeviantArt 'Crests for Tamers' by Impkat.<em>  
>Thanks for the information. I have to admit one of two things from this review. One, I actually mistook your intentions for the Crest of Love when I read the sentence 'Love' the new story. Two, I have to say that the idea for a Crest of Confidence didn't come to mind before you mentioned it. Anyway, I hope you keep reading. :)<p>

Super garurumon  
><em>OK, there are just so many fics with the word miracles now a days, just like all these OC submission fics out here. Don't sat you're going to delete the original are you?<br>Nobody noticed how horrible Hiroto looked? The guy had a few rips and tairs.(sp?)  
>YAY for Yuna and potental love interest.<br>And YAY! to review responses, I feel valued. ^^_  
>Well, you have to admit, the Crest of Miracles is pretty famous among fans. I'm probably going to delete the first story after I'm done with chapter 9 or 10. 9, I think. Speaking of people's ignorance about Hiroto's clothes: the moment was too intense for any of Hiroto's friends to realize; and Hiroto's family cares very little about him. And Yuna could probably be a love interest, though I'm not going to say anymore. And yes, I tend to reply to most, if not all, of the reviews I get. ^^<p>

Rc1121  
><em>Pretty good chapter, the person to person fighting was unexpected<br>Can't wait for Gus to appear.  
>Oh and if your wondering, Augustus is his full name, Gus is his nickname and Arel is an old beta name so forgot about it.<br>Can't wait until the next chapter._  
>The person to person fighting is kind of new in Digimon. The only place it happened is in Digimon Savers, but this does <em>not<em> mean that I copied it from Digimon Savers. And if I'm not mistaken, you've submitted Arel Terra before, right? Just asking out of curiousity.

Tendou Souji  
><em>This rewrite is advancing much faster than the original story but I prefer it this way. There is nothing wrong with making your chapters longer rather than divide them into smaller parts. Take me for example. My chapters almost always exceeds 10,000 words.<br>There were no grammatical errors in this chapter and no plot holes as far as I'm concerned.  
><em>_If you don't mind, I want to change my OC's appearance a little.  
>Appearance: Unruly neck-length jet-black hair with a few streaks of white hair, red eyes(crimson when his 'yin' half is in control), 5'0" in height, peach-coloured skin, slightly toned muscles.<br>Attire: He wears a black long-sleeved leather jacket under a white shirt. He also wears white shoulder pads that are intricately decorated with silver patterns, a necklace with the symbol of an inverted pentagram, black leather gloves, a pair of black slacks with three interconnecting belts and black sneakers. There is white fur running along the top of his pants and a small sash that partially covers his right leg.  
>Also, if you are going to put in the scene where Seishirou saves Hiroto from the dinosaur-like Digimon, can you introduce the TransVice(the new name for the D-X) instead of him using his D-3? Thanks.<br>~Tendou Souji~_  
>Thanks for the words of advice, and the help. Yes, this story is progressing much quicker than the previous story, but I <em>am<em> making up for that. And I've already applied the changes to Seishirou's looks and his digivice. Hope you keep on enjoying this story. :)

yukihime211  
><em>Sorry for not reviewing in the last chapter. _ Wow. I'm really liking the rewrite! This chapter was so action packed. ^-^ I was almost at the edge of my seat when Drake grabbed Yuna.<br>_I'm sure you have your reasons for not reviewing before. And thanks. Making this story more action-packed and romance-filled than before is kind of the aim of this rewrite. Plus, speaking of romance, I can tell you another reason I made this rewrite: Hiroto and Selene bonded too quickly in the previous story.

* * *

><p>Digimon Miracles<br>The Start of Miracles  
>Chapter 3: Bad Day<p>

As you all might've been able to guess, the freakishly sudden news of the soccer match last night kind of nailed me 'till I was at a loss for words. Rinji _had_ to be planning or scheming something, as he wouldn't issue a soccer match at the eleventh hour without making sure that he had the trump card. Now, when I saw 'trump card', I should be happy, since he's our team's sort-of-coach. But no, the trump card I'm talking about is actually for Yuki's team, so he's literally stabbing us in the back. Heck, why was I even surprised? He does this all the time.

I got up early the next morning at seven o'clock. My head felt a little dizzy as I needed some well-deserved rest after the beating I received from Drake yesterday. Oh, I also usually don't get up for another hour or so on Sundays, and I dreadfully needed the sleep as I drifted off at roughly midnight. I went to bed that late because I had to phone my friends to inform them about the upcoming soccer match. It took a few dozen apologies, but Dylan and Minnie finally agreed to forward the message to all my other friends.

Now, that wasn't the only thing I did. I was also too anxious to fall asleep as I sat by the house phone in my room, waiting for Lance's call. He had agreed to get back to me after Yuna's condition was stabilized. I know it was just a minor cut, but the neck is an important part of the body which held all the nerve fibres. Without it, we'd be immobilized, and this thought haunted me as I waited silently, accompanied only by Veemon's snoring. Lance finally called back, at midnight (what took him so long?), reporting that Yuna was healing up fine back at home, safely in the hands of her father, a well-known doctor in Tokyo.

Getting back to present, I hurriedly brushed my teeth before getting dressed. My jacket was a little ripped and torn, courtesy of Drake's fine longsword, so I chose another similar jacket (I have plenty, don't worry) from my closet. I stuffed DemiVeemon into my second bag as my first one was torn (again, courtesy of Drake's annoying longsword), trying not to get injured as he clawed around in his half-sleeping state. He must've thought I was kidnapping him (in some cases, this _would_ be considered kidnapping, but let's dwell on that later, shall we?) and dragging him away from his chocolate paradise.

I went down the stairs two steps at a time, hoping that I'd be able to get to the local soccer field to get some practice in before facing Yuki's team. Oh, you must be wondering – Yuki has her own all-girls team, which is definitely _not_ a pushover, since Yuki's brain worked similarly like mine (what did you expect, we _are _twins). Individually, each and every under-average player on her team was probably even weaker than kittens, but with Yuki around, there was a possibility we'd lose. Not that I'm saying we would definitely lose, since I guided my team to victory all the time. Okay, fine, _most_ of the time.

I stopped by a food store for a few seconds to purchase my breakfast, which turned out to be half-stale bread (I _have_ to take the time to pick my food wisely next time). I got to the stadium at roughly fifteen minutes past seven, which is quite good timing, even though Yuna and Lance were already there. From a distance, I thought they were taking a rest after some hard practice, since they were at the picnic tables, but upon closer inspection, I saw that they were having their breakfast instead. I mentally slapped myself for being so soccer-addicted.

It took me a few seconds to realize that I had unconsciously stopped in my tracks as I watched the cute couple enjoy their 'date'. I decided to back away and stop by a food stall for a proper breakfast. Anyone who saw the two 'dating' would try and give them some privacy, as Lance's father was a famous businessman and Yuna's father was, as you may already know, a famous doctor. You may be wondering why I'm accusing them of 'dating'. It's true, actually. I _did_ mention that they went out in Grade 3, and they've had a steady relationship since then.

I stopped by a meehoon stall, the name of which escaped my mind as I was too tired, and ordered some curried noodles. I saw half my team sitting there, and they must've been as shocked as I was. Some of them were stifling laughs, though I had no idea why. They must've retreated to this stall as well after seeing Lance and Yuna at the soccer field. Like I said, _no one _dared to crash their dates (except me, but why would I want to sabotage a friend?). I immediately told the waiter that I'd change tables, and I sat down between a sleeping Dylan and a yawning Minnie.

"So, Yuna and Lance?" I shot them looks.

"Yup," Minnie answered. Dylan only kept on snoring, which turned out to be the reason everybody was trying to control their laughter. And by the sounds of it, their control was wearing off.

I knocked Dylan hard on the head. At this rate, the entire stall would burst out laughing, even the owners and the cooks, and I didn't want this place to blow up in flames due to gasoline just yet. Maybe some other time would be good, but not now. Now, I needed my breakfast. Dylan blinked his eyes a few more times, and almost went back to sleep when I snapped my fingers beneath his nose. He bolted awake at once.

"What? Is my toast here already?" he asked groggily. Who could blame him for being so sleepy? Not one of us were looking forward to practising this early in the morning. Oh, and if you were curious about how none of us were willing to let this match slip away from our hands, I only have one answer. Pride. We have too much pride to afford being the laughing stock of the school should Yuki announce that we backed down out of cowardice.

"No, it's not here yet, stupid," Minnie retorted. Trust me, she's much nicer when she's not lacking sleep. I guess her sleepiness was fogging her, making her forget that she and Dylan had already patched things up... a little.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flying dragon coiling around in the sky. I couldn't believe my eyes, I rubbed them and then looked again, but now, all I saw were a bunch of white clouds that told me we were going to have a bright and sunny day today. I almost got up, when my bag rumbled, and I sat back down. There was no way I was going to risk my friends seeing Veemon just to see if a dragon was flying in the sky. Besides, it wasn't like I was armed with anything to hit it with except pebbles and rocks. Therefore, I just pushed the image out of my mind.

Soon, my noodles came, though I would've preferred them with more curry (yes, I am _that_ immune to curry). My friends' meals came shortly after mine, which was weird and unfair, considering they ordered their food earlier than I did. However, I could be wrong, as all of them ordered sets, whereas I only ordered a humble plate of curry noodles, which tasted quite spectacular.

At around eight o'clock, I took off to the soccer field while all my other friends were still digging in and eating to their hearts' content. As the captain of the team, I had to set an example. I had to show everyone that they weren't wrong in picking me as the captain, and that I wouldn't abuse my position as captain. Or at least, that was what Rinji told me to do. Even if he was a snotty brother who liked picking my sister's side over mine, I have to say there was quite a lot of logic in his words.

I saw Lance and Yuna, still sitting at the tables, but now their tupperwares were emptied of their contents. Lance and Yuna were chatting, no doubt about daily news, though I couldn't help but stare in amazement. They were quite fond of practising their communication, given the chance, or as everyone else likes to call it, their 'chemistry'. I didn't like being a wet blanket, and so I fought the urge to drop in on them ninja-style.

My bag unzipped suddenly, and I turned and saw DemiVeemon's small head popping out of the open zip. Oh gosh, if he was smart enough to open the zip from the inside (probably with his super long, well-trained... _hands_), then I think it's time I worried about the next place I'd store him while I was out.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Hey, don't blame me," DemiVeemon said. "But I already told you I was not going back into those stuffy places you call a bag."

I swung my bag off my shoulder and held it in my hands. "Look, you're just going to have to get used to it. There's no where else I can put you, okay?" I zipped it back up after pushing DemiVeemon back inside, but seconds later, it reopened and his head wriggled out of the bag again.

"Can't you at least find somewhere less compacted to put me?" DemiVeemon asked.

"No, now get back in there." I was grateful that he didn't struggle out again. Lucky timing too, as Yuki approached me from the back so quietly I almost shouted 'Mummy!' when she tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hiroto." As I said before, I almost yelped in fright. "Mai has some chores for you to do at home."

"What?" I said, partially refusing. "It's only about two hours before the match and you want me to wear myself down?"

"Yes." Sometimes, Yuki is so predictable, it's scary. "I came here for some practice, and then I saw you, so I just passed the message."

"What? Why choose _our_ location to practice? Why not go back to your own palace of soccer, or whatever you call it?" I retorted a little too loudly.

"Well, I guess the stadium's better than this dump any day," she said, not at all getting angered. This is what I hated about her. She was sometimes able to stay calm no matter what anyone said about her, and this was usually because she had a plan up her sleeves to get back at them. In short, it was not good when she was this calm. "Just remember to go home and finish the chores before the game starts. I wouldn't want to disappoint your teammates."

"Wait a second. That's not fair!" a voice called out behind me. I was stunned. Backing me up, literally and figuratively, was Yuna. "You're just trying to tire him out before the match so we'll lose!"

"You're part of this scam, aren't you?" I asked Yuki, feeling more courageous now that there was someone on my side. "The last minute soccer game, the chores, the to-be humiliation. It's all because of you, isn't it?"

"I have no idea what you mean, dear brother," Yuki said, putting on an innocent voice. She walked past me, placing her hand on my shoulder as she did so, and whispered something in my ear. "Remember, you won't be incurring my wrath, but Rinji and Mai's, so think carefully before you decide what you want to do."

As Yuki walked past Yuna, I could see Yuna's legs wavering before Yuki, and I knew it was not just because Yuna was afraid. In second grade, she had accidentally angered Yuki, and then Yuki humiliated her in front of the whole school during assembly by pouring a great deal of wet flour on her that stuck on her uniform. She was as white as a ghost (literally) all day, and she ran home crying after school before any of us could catch up. All I understood from it was that she stained Yuki's new clothes. And the worst part – she didn't get into serious trouble.

In the following two and a half weeks, Minnie, Dylan and I were able to calm her down partly, though she was still a little traumatized from the event. I don't like admitting this, but our actions seemed to be like drops of water in the ocean, as whatever we did mattered very little. It was Lance who brought her back to her old cheerful self. He visited her at home one day, and said something that seemed to touch her heart. After that, she was almost cured, unless she met Yuki, which we try to avoid.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand, Yuna was at the verge of collapsing, and I caught her just in time. You might all expect her to be brave or such after she confronted Drake and his gang of bullies yesterday, but truth is, she loses her confidence every time she is up against Yuki. Her confidence is replaced by fear, and it is a part of her that we rarely see. Needless to ask, we do not like to see that part of her any more than we want to see Yuki.

"You okay?" I asked, letting her stand on her own.

"Yeah, I guess," Yuna replied. She was starting to get over her little fear of Yuki, but it was a slow process.

"What happened?" Lance asked, running towards us. He was half-sweating. Looking at where they'd been sitting before, I instantly knew what happened. Don't ask me how I knew it, I just _did_.

Lance and Yuna had been talking, when one of them saw me and then broke up the conversation. They then resorted to getting practice in before the rest of the team to avoid conversation, but then Yuki arrived. Yuna volunteered to check on me to see what Yuki and I were arguing about, despite her fear of Yuki.

I gave Lance one answer, "Yuki," and he immediately understood what happened.

"Come on, let's just forget she ever came and get some practice in, shall we?" Lance asked us.

"Nah, I've gotta go home for something," I said, and bolted away. If I had to do chores, then it's best I did it immediately. I couldn't let the team down, could I? I hoped Lance understood, and he probably did since he saw Yuki with me. Whenever we talked, the topic was seldom the hottest news or the gossip of the week. I also didn't want to interrupt Lance and Yuna's time together (what are you all looking at me like _that_ for?).

As I neared the Kiyoshi mansion, I saw my sister, my _elder_ sister, standing just outside the gate. I spotted a sheet of paper in her hands, and I sighed in despair. It was a checklist, and by the looks of it, it was an annoyingly long list of chores I was supposed to have accomplished by my own. I'd have to guess that there were at least fifteen time-consuming chores I was supposed to complete, all of which I was definitely not fond of doing at all.

After getting all that done, I looked at the clock. Nine thirty. Oh my goodness, that had taken more time than I'd thought. I couldn't get any practice in, but if I hurried, I'd make it for the first half of the game. That was if there wasn't any traffic. Unfortunately, the streets were filled, so I decided to take another route to the stadium, a shorter, yet more dangerous and abandoned, route. It was an alleyway that had probably been abandoned for a decade or so. The walls were very crumbly, and some bricks jutted out like stairs.

It was all going fine until my eardrum got attacked by the loudest, most annoying, screech in history. I looked up, still cupping my hands over my ears, and saw a wyvern circling the air above me. It was the same dragon I had seen this morning. It screeched at me again, and this time, it was louder and more hostile than before. It was blue in colour, with a dark blue underside. It's upper head was covered by a skull, and it had a lion's mane the colour of a fiery red growing out of its neck. It also had fiery red wings to match, which had some ripped holes in them. Seriously, how was this thing able to fly?

"Any idea what this thing is?" I asked DemiVeemon after I unzipped my bag. The wyvern accelerated towards me, and I dived to avoid its first strike. My bag also flopped away from me, and DemiVeemon gave a small grunt. Then, the wyvern opened its mouth and got ready to bite me from behind, but I managed to kick it in the snout as it came. Annoyed, it flew away, only to get ready for another assault on me.

"Umm, I think it's an Airdramon," DemiVeemon said, trying to recover from my accidental drop of him onto the floor. He glowed white and transformed into the larger Veemon, whose fists I knew him for. "Even though he's a Champion digimon, and we'd probably get killed trying to fight him, let's enjoy this moment pounding him to pieces of data!"

"I'd like to, but sadly, we don't have the time," I said, disappointing Veemon quite a lot. "For now, let's just finish him off as quick as we can so I can get to the soccer stadium in time for the game."

"Aww, you're seldom fun," Veemon complained. I wanted to say, 'I know', but I didn't have the time.

The wyvern- I mean Airdramon, roared and six translucent air spears materialized in the air around it. They all seemed to be vibrating, as though they were made up of compacted air. With another roar, it sent all the spears flying towards me and Veemon. Veemon was able to protect himself by smacking the spears with his fists and relatively hard head, but I was unarmed. Therefore, I ducked, rolled, and then somersaulted upwards to evade the spears sent my way. Even as we speak, I was trying to think of a way to defeat this thing.

The Airdramon roared again, and more spears flew at me. I grabbed Veemon, and used his forehead as a shield. Lucky enough, all the spears bounced off Veemon's forehead as he screamed in terror, yelling for me to put him down. In the end, I finally submitted and let go of him. I might've gone too far with the 'protecting myself' thing, since I had endangered Veemon for the moment by doing so. It swooped at me again, and as I dived for cover, an idea came to me.

Airdramon flew up high to avoid any attacks from me. I jumped up some loose stone slabs and once I reached the top, I propelled myself towards Airdramon. My leg slipped when I tried landing on its head, and I grabbed its mane for support, though in the end I plummeted to the ground and landed on top of Veemon, who was coincidentally trying to get up. Darn, I didn't have enough momentum or energy to face this thing. If only I had used more energy in the jump, I could be 'riding' this thing right now.

Airdramon then coiled around me as I tried standing, and was about to eat me when it stopped. Its mouth was wide open, giving me a first-class view of its razor-sharp teeth inside that were really scary. But what was confusing was the reason it didn't eat me up there and then. It had me trapped, and there was no trick I could pull on it now, so why wasn't it moving? Who cared anyway? I spotted Veemon behind Airdramon, just in the right position for a surprise attack, and yelled, "Veemon! Now!"

Veemon jumped on some stone slabs, like I previously did, and bonked Airdramon on the head. The wyvern digimon instantly let me loose, and I dropped safely onto the ground on my two feet, which was a miracle since I had fallen from way above twenty feet in the air. Airdramon shook its head multiple times as though having a mental battle with itself, before baring its fangs at us and then coming to strike once again. Something told me that showing mercy was _not_ high on its to-do list anymore.

Just then, I felt a tingling sensation rise up in my chest, but hoping that I could do this on my own, I held it down as I tried thinking of something. When Airdramon was just a metre away, I leapt up onto its back and then tried directing it. No good. The speed of which it was flying at was way too fast, and soon, I lost my grip of its mane and found myself tumbling back onto the ground. I would've broken my back if Veemon hadn't been able to jump-catch me, and the both of us crashed into a nearby dumpster. I picked off a disgusting piece of banana skin from my shoulder, and thought 'Eww, gross'.

Airdramon came at me again, but this time, Veemon was close enough to give me backup (finally, since this whole battle seemed to focus around me attacking and not Veemon). He leapt up and bonked Airdramon on what-seemed-to-be his cheek, sending him flying straight into the wall next to me. His head seemed to be stuck. That would hold it for a few minutes. It struggled, and the weak foundations of the buildings started to crumble. Remember when I said 'for a few minutes'? Yeah, maybe more like a few seconds.

I jumped up from the garbage bin just seconds before the wall behind me collapsed. I yelled, "Veemon!" as he hadn't been able to get out in time. However, he just popped out of the rubble, shaking his head in confusion and holding it in pain.

"Oww, my head..." he complained. Ironic, I thought, since his head was as hard as iron, or even diamond.

Airdramon roared, and the spears materialized around it again. I felt the tingling sensation once more, and, knowing that I was running out of time, I let it take over. Instantly, I was filled with energy. My bones felt like they were on fire. All my bruises seemed to disappear, though I know that was only from the emotional aspect. Looking down, I saw that most of them were still there. Airdramon let out another ear-piercing roar, and surprisingly, I knew what to do.

I did a roll to my right, missing the first spear, and then did a roll to the left, missing the second and third spears, and then finally dived to the pile of rubble. The remaining air projectiles flew harmlessly into the massive pile of rock I was standing on. Luckily, they hadn't hit Veemon, who had gotten the upper half of his body free from the ruins and was screaming in terror. With a simple pull (I don't know how I got that much energy or power), I got him out of the ground. Some rocks tumbled into the empty hole that was once Veemon's rocky prison.

As though we could mentally communicate, the two of us rushed towards Airdramon with a battle cry. I made a sharp turn to the left and started jumping up some loose slabs again. Veemon, on the other hand, distracted Airdramon by smacking his face multiple times. He retracted his fists so quickly he could avoid the impact of his hits from sending Airdramon flying. In short – he could keep on punching Airdramon again and again to his heart's content without feeling the need to stop. He must've been having the time of his life, having his personal digimon punching bag.

As for me, I made my way up the shaky stone slabs before leaping off onto Airdramon's back. This time, I was able to land safely on his back and I grabbed his mane. After a few simple pulls of his mane, or as many would call it, 'test runs', I learned how to control his movements. I directed him into a wall, before leaping off. Then, as I landed on my feet, I grabbed Veemon and propelled him upwards. He knocked Airdramon in the belly (it was probably the belly, but it was hard to tell with its snaky body) with his forehead, and the wyvern roared in pain.

I watched in silence as the monster turned into a silhouette of what it once was, before disintegrating into over a million pieces of data. The data swirled around for a moment like it was flowing with the wind, before floating up into the air.

"What just happened?" I asked.

"We just defeated Airdramon, a Champion digimon!" Veemon cheered. He didn't seem to answer my question. "Hurray! Hurray!"

"Hey, Veemon, what was that swirly data thing?" I asked him, bonking him on the head to get his attention. At once, I regretted my actions. My hand felt like it had been squashed by a steamroller.

"Oh that? That's what happens when a digimon is defeated. The digimon turns back into data, and then returns to the digital world, where he or she would be reborn as a new digimon," Veemon explained.

I looked up at the sky. It was hard picturing the digital world a few million light years from the Earth. I say 'a few light years', because there was no way the digital world was anywhere near the Earth. It would've been spotted by astronomers a long time ago. And it was even harder to picture it being in our galaxy. Think about the weirdness of calling one of the planets in the Milky Way galaxy the 'Digital World'.

"Did you come from the digital world, too, when you came to help me on the beach?" I asked.

"Yeah," Veemon confirmed. "I was the champion of the island, and that's why the old man told me to look for you."

Okay, I didn't understand half of what he just said, but I shook that thought out of my head. Right now, there was only one thing bothering me. "But I'm confused... why didn't Airdramon attack me when it had the chance?" I wondered out loud.

"Nah, he's probably just awed by your awesome power," Veemon shook it off. "Now then, you were hurrying?"

Veemon's words woke me up. I remembered the reason I had taken this shortcut. The soccer match! I was going to miss the first half if I didn't hurry. I quickly stuffed Veemon into my bag as he turned back into DemiVeemon, and then sprinted off like lightning. I silently prayed that something would have at least delayed the match for a few minutes until I could get there, but with the type of luck I've been getting ever since my first encounter with digimon a couple of days ago, it was unlikely.

Once I had gotten off the abandoned path, I saw that the traffic had grinded to a halt. There seemed to be some car accident further down the road, but for now, it didn't matter (heartless, I know). I needed to get to the soccer stadium ASAP, and the unmoving cars were grateful to let me pass. Darn it, I was starting to think back on my decisions – if only I had taken the longer route and not the shortcut, I would've already been at the stadium fifteen minutes ago. But now, I was struggling to cope with my legs' fatigue and inability to continue moving on.

I reached the soccer stadium, or Yuki's soccer palace, as the referee's whistle blew. Yuki had scored a goal, making the score 2-0. I wanted to kick myself for letting myself get distracted by Airdramon. I was busy fighting Airdramon while my team was losing. Correction, I was busy fighting Airdramon while my _friends_ were losing. Now, you might all think that Airdramon's assault had nothing to do with my tardiness, but if I had only let the fighting urge take over sooner, I might've been able to change something, like possibly the two score lead Yuki's team has over us.

Looking over at my team's side of the field, I saw quite a horrifying sight. Four of them were injured, leaving the other six to fight on the field. Yeah, I know, the total players are eleven, and four plus six is only ten, but have you forgotten about me? There was a player with a bandage on his knee, one with bandages wrapped around his forehead, and two wearing slings (how the heck did they get their hands injured despite them not being goalkeepers?).

Yuki's team was doing just fine. In fact, all her team members were in perfect condition, as though they'd trained for this for a while, which, considering Rinji's involvement in this case, was probably true. Yuki was looking happy at the sorry sight of my half-destroyed team. When she spotted me, she shot me a soft smile. I knew that smile. That was the smile she gave people when she had a secret to winning a certain competition or argument And looking at the grim situation before me, I knew she did.

"Where were you the last thirty minutes?" Lance asked as he approached me, his soccer T-shirt drenched in sweat. He had probably suffered in the last thirty minutes, trying to keep the team together.

"Yuki's totally destroying us!" Minnie complained as she ran to the two of us as well. She, too, was drenched in sweat from head to toe.

"Look, I was attacked by a digimon, okay?" I said sternly but as quietly as I could. I didn't want to give digimon away to the whole world. Yet. Just kidding, but who knows?

"Hello? What's more important?" Dylan asked, walking up to us. "Annihilating digimon, or your friends?"

"Hello? What's more important?" I quoted. "This match, or my life?"

"Hey, why don't you just get into uniform and help us out..." Yuna sighed. I had nothing to fight back with, mainly because she didn't ask a question. She also had a hint of disappointment in her voice, which was another reason I didn't talk back. I didn't want her to feel anymore hurt than she already did.

I placed my bag down after pleading for DemiVeemon to stay quiet. Amazingly, he did as I asked. Maybe he didn't want to reveal his presence to the rest of the world and cause a panic either. I got into my uniform which had the number '7' on it (a lucky number!), and then got onto the field. There were only seven of us on the field, since, like I said before, four of my comrades have been injured badly by Yuki's team. And as much as I hated to admit it, we looked pathetic.

Through my amazing commands (and my friends' hardcore intentions to win), we were able to get a one-point lead after the whistle blew. Three to two... this was quite an improvement considering the fact that we only had less than fifteen minutes to score those three goals. But something seemed off about Yuki's team. Her issued commands were kind of off, just as though she _wanted_ us to score. Well, it was her loss. I looked over to the bench, where our 'coach' was sitting, and he was just looking grimly at the game.

In the second half, however, I found myself unable to concentrate. Since we had the lead, I had unconsciously allowed my brain to wander off, making my movements a little sluggish and off-timing. My brain kept drifting off to the same question – why didn't Airdramon finish me when it had the chance? Before I knew it, I got hit on the head by a shot from Yuki, and then she scored a goal as I struggled to get up. _Not_ a good sign.

I literally slapped myself back into reality. There was no way on Earth I'd let her win. We fought pretty intensely after that goal, hoping to get the tie-breaker, and the ball seemed to just go back and forth between us. My team was doing impressively, since we were able to hold out on our own even with the lack of four members. I was wondering if this would end in a tie. At least we'd have a reply if Yuki teased us of not being able to win – we were able to hold our ground even though she had an extra four members fighting on her team.

As the remaining time went down to five minutes, Yuki did something drastic. She shot the ball right at Yuna's head. Acting upon instinct, I jumped to deflect the shot with my forehead. Big mistake. My head was nowhere as hard as Veemon's. The ball hit my head like a bullet, and I felt myself fainting. I shook myself back into awareness, but by then, Yuki had managed to get another goal in. I was about to get everyone's spirit up to tie the score when the whistle blew for the end of the game. I looked on in shock as Yuki's team celebrated their victory, but more importantly, our loss.

After the game, I hurriedly changed back into comfortable, dry, clothes, and then grabbed my bag. I walked over to my teammates at the stands. I could've easily avoided any contact with them, even eye contact, if I had just left the stadium there and then. But that wouldn't have been right. _I_ was the reason we lost, so _I_ would go and apologize. Besides, we had school tomorrow. If I left today, they'd be able to pester me about being late for the game, making them lose, _and _abandoning them after the game without another word. No, the best option was to get it over with now.

The weather seemed to reflect the gloomy mood. The sky turned dark and cloudy. The next thing I knew, it was thundering. Then, it was lightly. drizzling, before it rained cats and dogs. "Hey, sorry about what happened," I apologized, though I doubted any of my teammates heard me. They were either tending to their wounds or holding their heads in frustration.

"Well, it's not your fault," Lance admitted. "I mean, who knew Yuki would pull a stunt like this?" He said this as though trying to make a joke, though everyone knew better.

"Uhh, actually, I did," I replied. Or actually, I _should've_ known. I'd been putting up with her arrogance for three years and I couldn't even see that this was all a trick?

"So..." Dylan stood up. "Why don't we all go out for some fried chicken wings? I heard the new KFC branch opened up two days ago."

Before anyone else came up with any other good ideas, I heard a pair of footsteps behind me. The following smirk immediately told me that it was Yuki standing behind me. My friends must've noticed her as well, as they all kept quiet after that. All I saw were stares and glares that were (hopefully) aimed at Yuki. The princess of glamour herself was probably smiling away at us.

Finally, she broke the annoyingly painful silence that filled the air. "Hiroto, I'm surprised you let your team lose this match. Don't you know how important this match is?"

"Yeah, I get it, you'll tease us for the rest of our lives until we win against you," I retorted without even looking back. "Now can you leave us alone?"

"Umm... Hiroto..." Yuna started, but Yuki cut her off.

"Well, I guess that even the great Hiroto Kiyoshi knows not of a thing or two," Yuki said cheerfully. "Didn't you know that this was a decisive match to determine the representative of Saikou to fight a foreign school from Okinawa next week?

Suddenly, everything clicked into place. Rinji had organized this match at the last minute so that I would be unable to prepare for it, whereas Yuki had the whole week, or maybe more, to get her team into shape. I was starting to push away my beliefs that we would've been able to win if I had arrived earlier. The 'back and forth' in the second half proved that Yuki's teammates were ready for whatever we had up our sleeves.

Yuki walked away with a probably triumphant look on her face. I just stood at that one spot in the rain, with my friends' eyes all on me. And for what-might-be-the-first time in my life, I had no idea what to do.

* * *

><p>So how was this chapter? Yeah, I agree, it's kinda gloomy, so can anyone think of how to fix this gloominess, or anything that I can addchange to improve the quality of this chapter? No, seriously, I think it needs major improvement. Well then, 'till the next update, everyone!

Please read and review!


	4. Electrical Mayhem

S.G.  
><em>AAHH YUKI! I just-just wanna pour hot sauce in your cereal! Have Vmon headbutt her to death! Or at least so she can get into a coma or something.<br>This chapter was so frusterating for me, but that's how you know a book/fanfic /movie /show is good cause you feel emotions, you pick a character's side and find morals.  
>I'm Super garurumon BTW, I'm just lazy.(I've kept that name since late 2007, I feel old)<br>_I'm glad you enjoy this so much. And just for fun, let me get three things straight. One, if you pour hot sauce in her cereal, she'd know from the spicy smell. Two, if Veemon headbutts her, Hiroto'd be dead on two charges – keeping a monster in the house _and_ 'sicking' it on Yuki. And three, it's going to be hard knocking her into a coma. Note, I might change these facts, as now I'm just stating these for fun. :)

mr. myxsiple  
><em>Sigh...One thing hasn't changed since the rewrite: my deep, want-to-strangle hatred for Hiroto's siblings.<em>  
>I get what you mean, but I can assure you, I have a totally reasonable reason for this. Justice-wise, it's not so reasonable, but quoting Hiroto, "Who cares about details?" :)<p>

NovelistOfTheSky  
><em>Another good chapter, I enjoyed this one too. I don't see anything wrong with the chapter being gloomy but if you're not happy with it then I suppose you could add a small posistive event half way, although it would make the ending more gloomy...I'll get back to you on this one lol Keep up the good work.<em>  
>Good logic... I guess you're right. Well then, I'll just let it be. Anyway, thanks for the advice and the encouragement. :D<p>

Phantomgirl96  
><em>Poor Hiroto! Lets hope his luck turns around!<em>  
>I agree, but let's not count his luck out yet. You'd expect him to have at least <em>some<em> misery in his life, right?

rc 1121  
><em>Well congrats to defeating a champion digimon with a rookie!<br>Yeah Digimon Savers started the human fighting bu that was just a sucker punch to make Agumon digivovle. Here you actually have good and detailed fights.  
>I kinda feel sorry for Yuna having rhat prank happening to her. Its like a PG version of what happened to Carrie.<br>To answer your question, yes Arel was used before in previous submissions. It's only recently did I change his name to Gus and fine tune some of his aspects like making go from a confident smart Uryyu copy to a shy otoku who treats digimon like family. When I first make an Oc, I generaly set up the skeletal parts of them up like apperance and history before fine tuning the personality of them. Arel/Gus is an example.  
>Also, I dont want to sound whiny but can you tell me whenif Gus appears. Thank you!  
>Keep up the good work!<br>_About the defeating champions with a rookie thing – I guarantee you it will not happen as often in this story as it did in my previous story. And Marcus/Masaru does kind of just jump into battle until Agumon digivolves, then he lays off. And I don't know what Carrie you're talking about, but I don't think it's any prettier than this scene.  
>About Gus appearing in this story, I don't want to give any spoilers as to when or if. Sorry for the inconvenience.<p>

Okay, so far I've been following the storyline. But now's probably where this story branches off into its own unique path. I hope you all enjoy it, and I apologize for it being shorter than the rest ofmychapters.

* * *

><p>Digimon Miracles<br>The Start of Miracles  
>Chapter 4: Electrical Mayhem<p>

I have to say I didn't sleep well that night.

No, that was an understatement. I didn't sleep _at all_. Closing my eyes didn't help. My brain seemed to float away to certain stuff, shifting from one crazy topic to another, though I had absolutely no idea what any of them were about. Opening my eyes didn't help either. I was left to stare at the ceiling, surrounded by nothing but the darkness of the night. Only Veemon's snoring kept me company (again), and you might think I sound like a lunatic now, but the snoring really made me feel less tensed. I guess it was just reassurance that Veemon was there.

The next day, I had to literally drag myself out of bed. I had a terrible headache, courtesy of Yuki's impossibly painful kick from yesterday. My aching body, due to fighting with Airdramon, didn't seem to motivate me to go to school at all. But then there was something else that motivated me: my friends. At home, I'd be outnumbered three to one (I don't think I have to mention names), but at school, I had my friends to back me up should Yuki try anything funny.

While I was busy brushing my teeth, I heard a yawn. I poked my head out of the bathroom, my mouth still full of bubbles and toothpaste, and saw DemiVeemon stretching in his sleep. He sat up and licked his lips (does he _ever_ think about anything other than food?), before murmuring something. If I wasn't mistaken, it was 'chocolate'. Then, he slumped back on the carpet floor, snoring and (most possibly) dreaming about chocolate again.

After rinsing and getting into my daily clothes, I grabbed a half-awake DemiVeemon and stuffed him into my bag. He struggled as I forced him into the tight spaces of my bag, due to it being half-filled with books. I found that it was impossible. I had to get rid of over five textbooks to actually get him to fit in there, and even then he didn't enjoy it. But I couldn't just leave him at home – Rinji would find him, and that would be disastrous for all of us. Okay, just the two of us.

I went down the stairs, and heard humming coming from the kitchen. A fragrant smell filled the air, and I could obviously tell that it was Mai cooking in the kitchen. Any regular person walking by would've already collapsed on the spot without a doubt. The reason? The fragrant that drifted around, a result of her cooking skills, would totally hypnotize outsiders into hunger, and her humming would intensify that effect, making them feel so hungry they'd collapse. But note that I said 'outsiders', so I'm immune to it. But just as a safety precaution, I raced out the door immediately.

I stopped by a food store (we have a lot of those in my neighbourhood) and purchased five sandwiches. I think the fillings were eggs and sausages, but I simply gulped two of them as I rushed to school. I wasn't hungry, but I was leaving the other three sandwiches for DemiVeemon in case he decided to go on a riot again. But then my stomach overpowered my brain and I munched on another sandwich. Don't blame me, those things were tasty.

I reached the pavement opposite the school, and witnessed it in all its glory. The fence surrounding the school was made of wires coiled over one another in a way that didn't injure the students no matter where you touched, so you could easily run into it at fifty miles per hour and still stay safe. Trust me, someone's tried it before, and he didn't even need to see the doctor. Only the school nurse, but not the doctor. There are also some playground equipments installed here and there so that students could come here when they were free.

From the school gates, there was a sandy path that acted as a road across the grassy fields to the middle of the school grounds. There, it branched off into six smaller roads that went their separate ways to each block. All of them were painted sandy white to go with the sandy road below. Each building was four floors tall with about three classes each floor. At the top floors, there were bridges that connected all the buildings to the central tower in the middle, which gave a castle-like feel to this place thanks to its pointed roof.

The tower was about six metres in diameter. It wasn't completely a building, but more like a hang-out place. It's a pretty relaxing spot to kill time at. At the bottom was a fifteen-foot tall clearing that was supported by six strong cement pillars. There was a fountain with a marble cupid positioned right on top of it, with its bow and arrow aimed in the direction of the gate. Some people say that couples who walk into the school together fall in love, though it's just a stupid superstition. I remember the time I used to spend sitting around here with... a friend.

Yeah, Saikou is a very high-standard school. When I explained to you all that Saikou was a school that demanded excellence, I think it's safe to bet that at least one of you thought it was a prison school, with high walls and jail-classrooms. But no, it's actually quite cheery here, except for some of the teachers, who are the tyrants of this school. They are way too strict for anyone's liking, and unfortunately, being in the best class, my classmates and I have to endure all the tormenting things they throw our way.

For those who are wondering about the six buildings Saikou owns, let me get something straight. Saikou only started out with two blocks, which are currently named Block 5 and 6. Then, after gaining fame (and more importantly, money) they added four more blocks to the school blueprints. Block 1 is for the teachers, Block 2 is for lower primary students, Block 3 is where the workshops and canteens are, Block 4 is for upper primary students, Block 5 is for lower secondary students, and finally Block 6 is for upper secondary students. And so, we have students ranging from 7 to 18 years of age.

Returning to the present, I walked over to Block 4 and climbed the flight of stairs till I was at the first floor. There, I entered my class and sat down at my table. To my right were Dylan and Lance, who were facing the back, and behind us sat Yuna and Minnie. There was one extra girl that 'invaded' our area, but she usually went off on her own during free period, so I could care less about her. I put down my bag (that let out a grump) and then turned around to chat with everyone else.

"So, how's everything, Hiroto?" Yuna asked.

"I'm fine, I guess," I replied half-heartedly. Or probably, I _lied_. How was I okay with leading my friends to epic defeat?

"I can tell you're not," Lance smiled. Darn, I hated it when people read me that well.

"Look, if you're really that disturbed by us losing," Dylan comforted me. "Then you can just forget about it. No way one little match is going to ruin our friendship."

"Well-"

"But if you do feel bad about it," Minnie interrupted Lance. "You could buy us recess to make up for it."

"Seriously?" Yuna raised an eyebrow. "Do you really like free meals that much?"

"If I don't remember correctly," Dylan reminisced, "Minnie also likes free hair products, free furniture, and anything that's free I guess, unless it's too disgusting for her."

"Hey, come on. Buying recess for you guys is the least I can do," I shrugged.

We went on talking about another topic (it's gossip, which I'm not really into), but then I decided to talk to them about DemiVeemon. Unfortunately, before the opportunity chanced on me, the school bell rang, signaling the start of the school day, as well as assembly. Quite a number of students were running down to Block 1, where the ground floor was used as the assembly hall. These students are either immature or young, as there was really no need to hurry. The assembly usually didn't start for another fifteen minutes after we rushed there anyway. I guess they just like the fun of running.

I was reluctant to leave DemiVeemon in the classroom all by himself. I knew some of my classmates had brought chocolate with them, as they always do so. The primary worry in my mind was the chocolate scent drifting all the way to DemiVeemon's nose. He already knew how to open the zippers from within, let alone from outside. If the chocolate scent got to his nostrils, there'd be no denying him of his favourite delicacy. And knowing DemiVeemon/Veemon, he'd make a complete mess of the place during his 'feast', which is not a good thing.

"Hiroto!"

Minnie's voice snapped me back to reality. My friends were already at the door, waiting for me, with the exception of Lance. He was playfully waving his hand in front of my face to see if I was in a trance.

"You okay?" he asked, resorting from waving his hand to snapping his fingers.

"Uh, yeah," I confirmed. "Let's get down to assembly. I don't think the principal wants us to be late."

Assembly was pretty boring. The principal was talking about some sort of competition, but I didn't really pay attention to anything he had to say. Instead, I was thinking about DemiVeemon in my bag. Had he already climbed out? Was he making trouble silently back at the class? Had he already managed to loot everyone of their chocolate bars and chocolate coins? I prayed silently in my head, hoping that the answers to all the above were 'no'.

As we trudged back to class after assembly ended, I saw some kids from the corner of my eye, and they were pointing at me. They whispered something to each other, but I shrugged it off. They were probably saying 'Oh look! It's the kid who got nailed in the forehead by Yuki!' and not 'It's Hiroto! The captain of Saikou's strongest soccer team!'. Umm, about that last part, I have to admit that people once used to compliment that way.

Back in class, I sighed in relief. DemiVeemon hadn't escaped my bag and turned my class into the remains of an all-you-can-buy mega-sale after all. I guess I underestimated the little guy's sense of self-discipline. I sat down in my chair as the female teacher walked into the class with her books tucked under one arm. Time for my all-time non-favourite Life Skills class, though it was nice to laugh at some of my friends' jokes about the teacher's size (she's as fat as a hippo).

After that was History, where we had our pop-quiz. Answering the questions was easy enough, but it was hard to hide DemiVeemon's presence in the silence of the class. He often shifted here and there, and when the teacher inquired about the noise and 'movement of my bag', I had to lie that I was feeling uncomfortable. She once even offered to let me go off to toilet, though I rejected her offer, knowing fully well that she'd take advantage of my absence and peek into my bag.

Once History was over, it was time for recess. Not more than a minute after the bell rang, the canteen was already overcrowded with students ordering food. No surprise, seeing as it all usually ran out very quickly. If Saikou knew that they had this many students, why couldn't they at least afford a storage house to hold extra food? Or at least a _public_ storage house? Yes, the one they have now is only for the teachers, and no student who could think logically would consider that a good rule. Heck, sometimes we even raid it (I did so when I was seven, but let's forget that as it was four years ago).

I had my mind set on eating some burgers for recess today, but I guess fate had other ideas. As soon as I had reached the canteen, I heard a minor yell from class. Only one thing came to mind – Veemon. I had a suspicion that Veemon had done something, and then was frightened by it, but then a tingling feeling within my told me otherwise. This tingling sensation was just like a surge of excitement, not the usual surge of power, so I guessed that this was a sign that a digimon was nearby. Correction, a _wild_ digimon was nearby.

I rushed back to class, and the scene before me was horrifying me. Almost all the tables were thrown here and there, with the rest being moved way out of their positions. All the bags were thrown across the room, and some were even hung on the windows. Some chairs were upside down, and even had their legs broken off, which was not a good thing. Reason – the students will have to fork out money. Yeah, most of the students are _that_ stingy to the point of complaining.

Anyway, in the middle of the room, I saw Veemon. But he wasn't alone. There was someone, or some_thing_ else with him. You'd think that after being attacked by a bladed sea monster and facing Drake's out-of-control cyborg singer, I'd be used to looking at new, weird creatures springing up all over the place. But the answer is no, I'm not used to it _at all_. And I don't think I'll ever be.

The thing was furry and red in colour with several blue stripes on it. It had two pointed ears that stuck out like a rabbits'. The reddishness was lighter in front compared to the back, but that didn't make me any more comfortable about the mere presence of this creature. Its belly was white in colour, and so were its claws, which were, fortunately, blunt. Its two blue eyes were focused on Veemon, and the few sparks that ran across the floor where it stood automatically told me that this digimon had something to do with electricity. Either that or he'd been rubbing the floor 'till electrostatic energy's produced.

Veemon spotted me from the corner of his eye, and then turned around. "Hey! You're just in time! I-"

He didn't have a chance to finish his sentence as a small bolt of electricity struck him in the back. He collapsed face-first onto the floor. I ran over in an instant, though I must've been crazy since there was still an electrifying monster standing there. I inspected Veemon's wound and expected to find his back badly singed or burnt, but there was just a thin layer of dust covering it. I sighed, not in relief, but in surprised. I was never going to fully understand digimon.

"Ouch..." Veemon groaned as he got up. "That is definitely not fun..."

"What is that, Veemon?" I asked, nodding my head towards the monster.

"Duh! It's a digimon. I think he's Elecmon," Veemon said. "But don't worry, he's super weak."

"If he's so 'super weak'," I reasoned, "how did he totally destroy this class, keep on similar fighting grounds with you, and then still zap you in the back with a bolt of electricity?"

"I have reasons for that!" Veemon replied. "But if you ask me, I'd call this makeover an improvement. I was also going easy on Elecmon. And if you don't mind me saying, Elecmon only zapped me in the back because I was too distracted talking to you."

"Okay, okay," I held up my hands in defeat. For a goofy, clumsy, hard-headed digimon, Veemon is pretty smart. And by smart, I mean, 'goofy, clumsy, hard-headed' digimon-wise.

Elecmon growled, grabbing our undivided attention. He fired another bolt of electricty at the two of us, though I am proud to say I evaded it with extreme mobility. I ducked under it faster than it could fly, and it didn't hit me at all. Did you really believe that? No, I actually just took up a table to shield us from the lightning bolt, which blew a hole in the smooth wood. I was too busy looking for another table to feel sorry for the owner of this table, who'd be forced to look for a new one in the school's massive storeroom in Block 3.

Elecmon struck again with his electricity, but this time, Veemon was brave enough to try and block it. He headbutted the lightning bolt, and for a second, I thought it would actually be deflected back to Elecmon. That would've been cool. But instead, like usual electricity, it conducted into Veemon's body upon contact. I could literally see sparks racing on his skin. There was only one thing I could do while I watched in terror – hope that Veemon's brain wasn't completely fried by the attack.

Elecmon sent another electric bolt my way while Veemon was preoccupied with coming to his senses, and I had a lot of difficulty maneuvering in the big messy pile of tables and chairs. I had to jump over most of them, though under certain circumstances, I ducked under tables to keep my speed and momentum. After about two laps around the classroom, I took a sharp turn towards Elecmon and slammed right into him. The two of us went colliding into the furniture at the other side of the room.

I shook myself back to reality as Elecmon struggled to get out of the two tables squishing him to death. Veemon was holding his head in confusion, and his head was bobbing left and right as though he'd been hit by something hard, though in this case I'd call 'something hard' an understatement. Seriously though, he'd been zapped by an electric bolt. In the forehead, no less. That's got to be worth a lot of pain, right?

"Grr," Elecmon growled as he continued struggling to get free. There was a minor scratch above his right eye. I paid him no mind, and for some reason, he didn't fire any electricity towards me. Maybe he could only do so when his tail or body was free, as the only part of him not squashed by the tables was his head.

"Veemon, you okay?" I asked.

"I'm... fine..." Veemon said, half-giggling. That brain-zap must've been more serious that I'd expected. I bonked him on the head despite knowing the consequences, and he did the rest by shaking himself awake. "Thanks for that, Hiroto. I really needed it."

"Yeah, but next time, I'm _not_ bonking your head," I groaned, holding my hand in pain.

"What bonking?" Veemon asked. "I was referring to watching you hold your hand in pain."

"Grr!" Elecmon growled, this time louder than before.

Then, he played a card that I was positive he didn't show before. He turned into electricity and zig-zagged his way out of the class. Part of me was relieved that he was gone, but another part of me was panicking. I wasn't sure why until I looked at the condition of my class. If it was worse before, now it was at the brink of destruction. Over half the tables were blown to bits by electricty, and most of the chairs were completely broken.

It's okay, I told myself. I'd be able to clean this up before recess was over. But I knew that I was just fooling myself. Finding tables and chairs that were in perfect condition for the entire class in under thirty minutes was impossible to do. I wouldn't even be able to find a single one, and that was if I had a full hour to search. I panicked as I wondered what to do next. Just then, the accursed school bell rang. And I'll be truthful – I panicked a whole lot more since then.

I heard footsteps coming, and I realized my biggest problem wasn't the tables or chairs. It was Veemon. I'd be able to make up for this mess (heck, I'd bet some students would even reward me for doing this) but I wouldn't be able to wipe people's minds of Veemon's presence. I quickly looked here and there, trying to find a place to stash Veemon for the time being, but with the place being so trashed, I couldn't think of one that was safe enough. And I was running out of time. Then I got the craziest idea of all. I grabbed my bag (it's somehow still safe) and squeezed Veemon in as he degenerated.

When my classmates saw the mess, half of them were having trouble wiping their grins off their faces (I told you, so thumbs up for those of you who bet that I wasn't lying). However, when the teacher came and witnessed the 'utter destruction' of the class, I was sent to the discipline teacher's room. And no matter what I said, he didn't believe me. But then again, none of it was true in the first place (what was I supposed to tell him, that I was fighting a monster from the world of computers that had power over electricity?).

Despite the fact that I had totally annihilated a classroom, the consequences weren't that dire. All I received was a lecture on being more responsible (I was able to stand it as Mai always gave me those at home). The discipline teacher then let me off the hook, with a catch – my parents would be requested to pay for the damage that I had caused. I should've been worried this small (okay, _big_) incident would wreck my relationship with my parents, but no, I wasn't the least worried. This is because my parents were used to me getting in trouble, and all of them were because of Yuki. Okay, except this one.

Since there were no tables, chairs, or whiteboards (did I forget to mention this?) to teach with, my class was free to return home. Yes, the teachers let us do this should an 'accident' happen, and no, we don't purposely do this. I sighed in relief as no one bothered to look in my bag, which seemed like the only one that survived the attack. All the others mostly had holes through them, and while the rest of the bags were unable to be found. Probably blown to bits by high voltage electricity.

I decided to go home. I doubted that Elecmon was still around, otherwise I'd get that excited feeling again. My friends had other ideas planned. Lance and Yuna were going to finish their project on botanical research together at Lance's place, and they seemed so insistent on doing it alone that I suspected 'research' wasn't the only thing they planned to do. Okay, guilty of the fact that I was a little jealous. Only _a little_. Dylan made it his mission to do the botanical project at the library, whereas Minnie wanted to return home quickly to get lunch ready, which she seldom got the chance to do.

Since I failed to have recess at school, I got ready a heavy lunch. Let's say... a bowl of mushroom soup, two slices of toast, a cheeseburger, a hamburger, a chocolate-burger (weird) and two cans of Gatorade. The hamburger, chocolate-burger, and the second can of Gatorade was requested by Veemon, with chocolate-burger being his invention. If you ask me, it looked awful, with melted chocolate dripping all over the place (I'll clean it up, just later).

After that, I turned on the television and started channel surfing. There was nothing good to watch on TV at this time of the day, anyway. Just news about here, news about there, some childish cartoon, another childish cartoon, another news program, and so on. In the end, there was really nothing to watch. I walked out to the backyard to get some fresh air.

Did I tell you about the Kiyoshi backyard before? If no, then here it is.

It's probably as big as the frontyard, surrounded by wooden criss-crossing fences that were at least three metres tall. I could see some papaya tendrils snaking their way around the openings in the wooden fence, supporting the papayas. Further decorating the backyard were potted plants of all shapes, colours, and sizes. No, I am _not_ going through the trouble of naming every single one. Ignoring all this, there was still a lot of place to run.

I grabbed my soccer ball, which was resting by the water hose, and kicked it towards Veemon. I might be a prodigy, but I'm also a hopeless soccer-addict, aren't I? Soon, I had Veemon passing the ball back to me, though he headbutted it instead of kicking it. Say, if Veemon was ever on my soccer team, we should put him forward. He'd easily be able to header the ball into the goal from a few metres away.

Just as I attempted another pass, an electric bolt burst the soccer ball. I looked in the direction of the bolt (yes, I saw it even though it must've been to fast for the naked eye to spot). Confirming my fears, Elecmon was standing there, with the same crazed look in his eyes. I recognized him as the Elecmon from before as the scar I gave him several hours ago was still clearly seen above his eye.

The Elecmon aimed its tail at me and shot an electric charge. I dived to my right, mildly missing the attack, and a small part of my jacket was burnt. Why do foes always aim for the jacket? Veemon ran towards him and performed a headbutt as an attempted diversion, only to have this morning's event of 'brain-fry' repeat itself. Veemon stumbled around the garden for a few seconds, obviously dazed, and then collapsed.

I got up and totally got Elecmon's attention. I ran to my left and Elecmon shot the ground next to my feet. I quickly darted in the opposite direction. Even so, Elecmon's aim must've improved a lot, as he was able to electrocute my shoulder within the next two seconds. Oh, darn it. My whole body felt the surge of electricity, and I collapsed forwards. Who knew a small digimon like this could be so much trouble? Definitely not me.

My vision blurred. Maybe that electric charge was too much for my body to take. Well, no offense, but we humans aren't really that resistant to electricity, are we? The last thing I saw was Veemon fighting with Elecmon, with the favour shifting towards Elecmon.

Then, I blacked out.

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><p>What'd you all think? This chapter is kind of rushed, but knowing all of you, you might've already detected that a few paragraphs ago. Well, I hope it was still able to satisfy you despite its flaws. Oh, and one more thing – a new OC is making hisher way into this story soon. Anyone want, or dare, to guess who it is?

Please read and review!


	5. Lucid Nightmares

Tendou Souji  
><em>Hey there. Sorry about not reviewing the previous chapter. It was mostly because the review would have been the same as the original story's chapter 3 review which is all about my annoyance towards Rinji, Mai and Yuki.<br>I straightaway noticed that this chapter deviates away from the original story's plot. I was expecting this to happen but not this early in the story. A very nice job.  
>A tower in a school? I'm not sure it exists if in the real schools but whatever.<br>I wonder why Elecmon went into that specific classroom. Are Digimon attracted to each other's presence?  
>You mentioned that Hiroto's parents are used to him getting into trouble. Does this mean that they are the only ones who treat Hiroto like he should be treated?<br>When Hiroto wakes from his slumber, I wonder who shall enter his line of sight first. Is it gonna be 'The Three Demons'(at least in Hiroto's opinion) or the new OC?  
>Either way, I can't wait for the next chapter.<br>Update soon and I hope that OC appears soon.  
><em>Thanks for the review. I understand you annoyance towards Rinji, Mai, and Yuki, but they're (as unbelievable as it seems) an important part of this story, so I can't do as Super Garurumon hopes and kill 'The Three Demons'.  
>Elecmon went to that classroom... I'm not sure, really. I could go with your brilliant idea of digimon having magnetic pulls to each other. Or I could explain it in the form of some super high-level science which even I might not understand. Or I could blame it all on luck. I have no idea.<br>Hiroto's parents _are_ the only ones in Hiroto's family that treats him like a human being. Hiroto's brother and sisters have their reason for hating him, whereas his parents have their own reasons for favouring him.  
>To find out who Hiroto meets when he first wakes up, you'll have to read this chapter.<br>Thanks for reviewing!

Super garurumon  
><em>I knew he was gonna get caught for the classroom thing.<br>It's like he walked under some latters, passed a black cat, broke some mirrors, split poles AND was born on fri. 13.  
>*reads response* Darn it! I was just so desperate at the time.<br>I'm so not gonna guess for the OC the're WAY to many of them I'd get it wrong, sides the only ones I really remember are the recurring ones that are in other fics like Gus Terra._  
>Well, even if he did manage to escape school, you can bet your money that Rinji, Mai, and Yuki would be able to frame him as the main suspect.<br>Regarding your luck-related questions, you have to admit that he's been awfully unlucky these few chapters, except for the near-death experiences in battles.  
>You're probably right on the OC thing. If I'm right, there are over a dozen OCs submitted to this story. I guess I was going overboard trying to hope for someone to nail the OC's name.<p>

pokemon fan 1991  
><em>Good job on this chapter<br>_Thanks a lot.

rc 1121  
><em>Hm, You know how in shows where the parents absent or are abusive to thier kids but you laugh at it becuase it's funny? I'm not getting that feeling, it's sad that Hiroto almost never gets to see his parents.<br>Also Carrie was a horror movie from the 80's where she is a Psychic that takes revenge on the people that don't like her, and when she is nomiated Prom Queen, she gets dumped with pigs blood and goes __on a rampage.  
>Also to S.G, Yes I realize that I submit Gus to a large amount of fanfics. The reason why is half of them never get past the first chapter or other chickne out because they don't like the critism they face. Here, Athre actaully cares about his fic and goes into great detail about his story instead of writing five hundred word chapters of boring filler. Besides, your honestly going to tell me you don't submit to numerous fanfics and you have submitted to roughly every one I have so don't complain about me and OC's since I don't do it about yours!<br>As the new incoming OC, I'm gonna guess Mochizuki or Danielle.  
>Update soon!<br>_I agree that it's quite saddening how Hiroto seldom gets to see his parents. Even so, they won't make an appearance in this story. Not in this arc, anyway. Speaking of abusive parents, it's like Hiroto's brother and sisters have taken over this job.  
>My heart almost skipped a beat once you told me what Carrie was. I don't usually watch horror movies, or read horror fics. Gulp.<br>For the upcoming OCs, you'll have to wait until the next chapter. Okay, okay, I admit I said 'soon', but I didn't exactly say when, did I?  
>Thanks for the encouragement. I hope this story keeps you entertained.<p>

Phantomgirl96  
><em>I hope its mine! But I have no clue. XD<br>_I don''t know either. Keep reading to find out! XD

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><p>Digimon Miracles<br>The Start of Miracles  
>Chapter 5: Lucid Nightmares<p>

Injured people usually get stupid dreams, but mine goes way beyond that.

I was standing, or floating, (it depends on how you picture it, but that doesn't really matter), in a void of eternal darkness. There was not a single streak of light to be seen, and the thought of being surrounded by nothing but darkness made me shudder. I lifted my hands to my face, but even at five centimetres distance I could only see their blur outlines.

The darkness that enveloped me wasn't the scariest part. It wasn't even close to the scary part at all. What I was truly afraid of was being alone. Now, as I looked around, I could see neither Veemon, Yuna, Lance, Minnie, nor Dylan anywhere close. It might've been stupid if all of them were involved in my dream, but dreaming up at least one of my friends wouldn't have been so much trouble, would it?

"Hiroto," came a voice. The mere sound of it sent a chill down my spine. The voice was dark, cold and filled with negative emotions, almost as if it was pure evil (just a random guess). "Hiroto, can you hear me?"

I inhaled deeply, gulped, and mustered up some courage. Even then, my voice sounded like a squeak. "Who are you?"

"You do not have the authority to question my identity," the voice boomed. My ears rang with echoes, and I barely managed to shake myself back to reality. Well, maybe not reality, since I was probably still dreaming.

"Okay..." I wondered what to say next, while my fear unconsciously faded away. If my instincts weren't fooling me, I had met this... uh, crazy guy somewhere before.

Apparently, I didn't have to wrack my brain for any possible questions. The big headless-and-bodiless voice had some questions of his/its own. "Do you want a life filled with surprises and terror, with danger at every corner?"

I said the obvious thing. "No."

"Then halt your activities and abandon your duties as a digidestined. Your life will be filled with much more joy, then. Continue with your dangerous acts, and someone will definitely get hurt. Or worse."

I woke up from my dream, or, should I say, nightmare. My eyes blinked as the light flooded into my vision. I sat up and observed my surroundings. There was a wooden chair to the right of my bed. Beside my bed was a small table with a glass bowl filled with purple, juicy grapes. The walls were painted white in colour. The door was located on the left side of the room. Opposite my bed was a window that gave me quite a good view of the blue sky. I recognized this place as the local hospital. However, there wasn't anyone else in the room.

I wanted to stand, but as soon as I attempted to remove my blanket, I felt dizzy. There was a splitting pain originating from the back of my head, as though someone had smacked me with an iron stick. I let my head drop back onto the pillow and closed my eyes. I tried to get some rest without going to sleep. There was no way I was experiencing the same dream, or nightmare, again. It was just way too freaky. Unfortunately, I really needed some rest and I felt myself drifting off.

This time, I had another lucid dream. Ever have them? In case you're wondering, lucid dreams are dreams in which you're awake. I mean, you're still asleep, but you're awake in your dream. Yeah, it's confusing, I know, but you can control those dreams and make anything or anyone appear. However, most people get excited once they get lucid dreams, which leads to them waking up. Therefore, very few admit that they've been in a lucid dream before.

Back to _my_ lucid dream, it was nothing like a dream at all. It was another nightmare. I was totally awake, but once again I was floating around in a void of darkness. I found the darkness less intense and less concentrated than before, but this fact didn't make it any less scary. I was still alone. I admit it, I am way more afraid than I'd ever been in my life. I'd rather go toe-to-toe with Rinji, Mai and Yuki all at once than face this again. I don't know why, it's like a nervous conscience or something. And this was just a dream, for crying out loud.

"Hiroto," someone called from behind me. This one sounded more friendly than before, and didn't make me want to scream 'Mommy!' in terror. "Where do your responsibilities lie?"

I turned around. As expected, no one was there. Either that, or the darkness was fogging my vision and concealing him from my view. "Who are you?"

"My identity is of no importance," came the answer. There it was again – the unwillingness to introduce oneself. If you ask me, I am getting real annoyed with weird strange voices knowing my name, but me not knowing theirs. "What is important, is where your responsibilities lie."

"What do you mean, 'responsibilities'?"

"Do you know where this is?" the voice asked, ignoring my previous question.

"Umm... yeah, it's my brain," I said. "And you're interrupting my supposed nice time to rest."

"This is your brain, but do you know what place it is?"

"My brain, stupid." Okay, I guess you can say I was pushing my buttons, referring to the voice as 'stupid'. But I needed some rest, and these... voices... were _not_ giving me any.

"This is the future world after it's experienced the apocalypse. Everything you love – gone. Everything you care about – destroyed. Everything you know – annihilated. Think about it. Abandon your duties as a digidestined and this is what happens."

"How do I know this isn't a trick?" I asked. Heck, how do I even know this isn't just a scary nightmare?

"Think. Just now, someone told you to live a carefree life with your friends and then shut you out without giving you an explanation. I, on the other hand, am good enough to hold my anger and deal with your stupidity and foolishness, not to mention overlook your recklessness from time to time."

"Stupidity?" I asked, confused. "Foolishness? Recklessness? Just who do you think you are? Show yourself and I'll let you see just how idiotic, foolish and reckless I am."

"There. You threatening me is a sign that you're reckless and letting your emotions take over. Emotions are a waste of time. Throw them aside. _You_ of all people should know that."

I wanted to argue back, but this mysterious voice had a point. He'd nailed me.

"In addition, trying to fight someone who's trying to help you is stupidity, and you not planning your attacks before you make empty threats are signs that you're foolish. I know a lot about you, Hiroto."

"I don't think that you're trying to help me, since you criticized me like that just now," I replied. This voice is smart, but annoyingly down-to-earth.

"Accepting criticism is the only way to improve, is it not? Your kind taught me that."

"And you, considering you're real and not just an imaginary friend, came all the way here just to criticize me and make me feel better?"

"Do you think I want to make you feel any better?" the voice asked sarcastically. "No, what I'm here for is to make sure you do your job as a digidestined. What is it you humans call it? Force? Blackmail? Threaten? I could care less if you lost an arm and a leg, as long as you're still able to fight."

"You do realize I was just zapped by an electric charge probably higher than any other human could've received?" I wanted to say I was on the verge of death as well, but I doubted someone who knew so much about me would believe that. He probably even knows I'm sleeping in the hospital. "So can you visit me some other time, like never again, and leave me alone?"

"Uphold your name as a digidestined and I won't have to ever talk to you again, Hiroto. Just make sure you don't stray away like some others did."

I bolted awake. My breathing was heavy and I was sweating a little. I was still in the same room. The only difference was that Minnie was sitting on the wooden chair by the window, reading a book on fashion and flowers. Don't ask me anything, as I have no idea how those two things mix. I sat up on my bed, and I realized I didn't have a splitting headache anymore. As soon as I straightened my back and stretched my arms, Minnie noticed me.

"Finally awake?" Minnie asked, pulling the wooden chair back to its original position, a.k.a. next to my bed.

"How'd I get here?" I asked groggily, rubbing my eyes.

"Well, yesterday, someone called the ambulance once they saw you sprawled out on the floor. The doctors found that you've conducted too much electricity and therefore almost failed to save you."

"Almost?"

"Well, actually, they said you were beyond help," Minnie admitted. "After some time, they refused to keep trying as they didn't want to waste their resources. Then-"

"Then Dylan blackmailed them into helping by threatening to hack into their database and delete every single information about their patients and their staff which could lead to disastrous results such as impersonation?" I joked.

"That's impossible, Hiroto," Minnie giggled. "He'd be throw in jail."

"Can't a kid joke around sometimes?"

"Anyway," Minnie continued. "Yuna was able to convince her father so he wouldn't give up on you, and he agreed to try his best. Bla, bla, bla, you get the rest."

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"I don't really know exactly, but I do know you were already unconscious when they sent you to the hospital, which was around five o'clock yesterday. So if I have to guess, you were out for at least sixteen hours."

My mind did the math. Fast forward five o'clock in the evening by sixteen hours and you'll get nine o'clock. So it was around nine something at the present, which meant I was really late for school. Now is a good time to forget the term 'better late than never', because when it comes to Saikou, it's either being punctual or punished. Hopefully, Yuna's father would be kind enough to give me a medical certificate to prove that I wasn't taking French leave.

I threw the bed covers off of me and attempted to stand up, but my legs felt like jelly. They were wobbly and weak, clearly showing that they wouldn't hold my weight _at all_. I collapsed almost instantly, and I was lucky Minnie had good reflexes, otherwise my face would've been smashed against the floor right about now. She quickly supported me as I crumpled onto the ground, and helped me back onto my bed. Even as I was sitting, my legs were wobbling like nuts.

"Darn, I just don't get why I'm so tired," I said, dropping backwards onto the bed. The bed was only wide enough to hold my body, which left my head hanging from the other end of the bed. You know, some people do find it easier to think when they're upside down. I'm not speaking from experience. This is just a theory that I've read in some of my science books.

"Maybe it's because you were injected with high amounts of electricity?" Minnie suggested in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

"Well, of course I know that," I retorted, bored. "But I've been resting for almost three quarters of a day. Shouldn't I have at least healed a bit by now?"

"Stop your whining already. You're alive, that's what matters."

After resting for another annoying hour, with only Minnie and her fashion books to accompany me (it's pretty boring as I had no interest in fashion), I was finally ready to be discharged. I don't know if I was ready to be discharged any earlier, since I only found out that I was fine once the nurse walked by the room. Even though my legs weren't fully ready to support me, I found that I was able to walk around properly (with much difficulty).

Minnie accompanied me to the counter, generous enough to make sure I didn't fall. Okay, I'm guilty of the fact that I did wobble around a little while I was heading to the counter, and I had to lean against the handles in the elevator to steady myself. Do _not_ tell Yuki. As I goofed up a few times, I wondered how Veemon was feeling at the moment, and whether he felt embarrassed whenever he goofed up unknowingly. Most probably not.

After paying the discounted bills, Minnie and I headed outside the hospital, where we parted ways. As it was around ten thirty to eleven o'clock, Minnie rushed home to prepare lunch. I think she said she had a new recipe she found that she intended to try out. Me? I was in no rush to return home, as the sooner I got there, the sooner I'd have to face 'the three demons'. Maybe I'd be lucky, bump into one of my classmates, have a nice twelve-hour-long chat, and return at maybe midnight. But since when was I _ever _lucky?

As I was walking by an alley, I got a strange anxious feeling. It was pretty similar to the one I felt when Elecmon attacked me. Then I remembered one important detail from yesterday. Elecmon was still running loose! I panicked, wondering what had happened to Rinji, Mai and Yuki when they had arrived home the day before. Wait a second... no, I was worried what would happen to _Elecmon_, not my brother and sisters. They can be way worse than a destructive electric monster any day.

As aware as I was that I had to hurry home ASAP, I couldn't ignore the digimon (if it even was a digimon) that was hiding in the alley. I made a split-second decision and ventured into the alleyway.

The dark alley smelled grossly of rotten socks and mouldy cheese. With every step I took, I had to pinch my nose harder, since the concentrated smell seemed impossible to avoid. And that was just the smell. Have I even mentioned the surroundings? The walls were pretty old and eroded, with too much dust for my liking. Every two seconds or so, I'd blink my eyes to rid them of the dust particles. I wonder, why does Tokyo even have such old and abandoned alleyways?

Nevertheless, I kept advancing deeper and deeper. I saw nothing suspicious, and you can bet I was surprised when I reached the end without even encountering or catching a glimpse of any digimon. I had only turned around when a swift figure zoomed by me and sprinted out of the alley. I gave chase immediately.

Weird enough, even when I had been unable to walk properly a few minutes ago, I was now able to run like a professional without feeling any pain, discomfort, or any other sort of side effects. I could duck, jump, and weave around the crowded pavement without any difficulty. It seemed as though I had completely recovered from my little 'shock' (hah, see what I just did there?) with Elecmon the day before.

After running two blocks, the creature sped up some stairs. I thought it was just an overgrown cat returning to its master, when I shook the thought out of my head. Better safe than sorry. I bounded up the stairs two steps at a time, all the while keeping my eyes on the grayish figure that made its way upwards with immense speed. Should I have been any worse at running, there would have been absolutely no chance for me to catch up to the creature.

On the rooftop, I finally got a good view at the monster I had been chasing. It had bluish gray skin, and two ears that looked like an angel's wings. Its eyes were surrounded with black outlines, which contrasted its orange eyes. The tip of its tail was also shaped like an angel's, with a leather belt tied to it. The monster walked on all fours, and on each paw were three, long, sharp, black nails. I didn't think the angel-like look was meant to make it fight more peacefully.

The monster growled and then leapt at me, baring its sharp fangs at me. Its two canine teeth threatened to sink into my skin, and I was forced to somersault back to save my skin (ooh, this one's pretty literal). If I did another somersault backwards, I'd be tumbling down the stairs, breaking every single bone in my body. Briefly, I think I'd be like Humpty-Dumpty, who couldn't be put back together again. Okay, just a random thought, sorry about that.

I kicked it in the face, but mysteriously, it didn't flinch. All it did was shake its head before turning its attention on me again. It leapt at me again, this time with its claws ready to scratch me. I made an emergency dive to the right and rolled a bit before getting up. Already the monster had recovered from its failed attack and was ready to strike again. Me? Not so much. I was still panting (minorly) and waiting for some bruises to heal.

I had to get as much distance between the two of us as soon as possible, and so I took a step back. The monster placed a foot forward. I backed up again, and the monster advanced. If this keeps on, then there's a fairly high chance I'll be cornered and eaten up. However, I had no other option, and I soon found myself backed up against the metal railing. Going any further would bring me to Humpty-Dumpty's fate. Why was my mind so wrapped up about Humpty-Dumpty?

As the monster jumped towards me, I kicked it square in the face with the sole of my shoe. It tumbled onto the ground, holding its face in pain. I grabbed its right leg and threw it upwards, angling it so that it would land on the railing. This would save it _and_ paralyze its body for the next few seconds. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. I ran for the staircase as I heard it grunt from the impact against the metal railing.

I had probably thirty seconds of relaxation before I sensed the monster chasing me again. I didn't see any sign of it, nor did I hear it, but I _sensed_ it. It was like this anxious feeling that was building up inside of me, warning me about digimon. It was totally similar to the one I had yesterday with Elecmon. Even under such circumstances, I'll admit it's quite cool having a digimon radar that gears you up for battle.

Judging from the shops and modern landmarks, I estimated I had another few minutes of running before I'd reached the Kiyoshi mansion. Alright, at this pace, I'd be able to make record timing! Oh sure I was thinking about beating my old record while a killer digimon was after me? Real smart. And what was with the townspeople? Don't they see what was chasing me? Shouldn't they at least be giving _a little_ help?

I stopped at the magnificently large gates that I had to heave open. My heart calmed down as I locked the gates behind me. I was finally safe, or so I thought. My moment of triumph didn't last long as the monster jumped over the gate and landed between me and the front door. Darn it, the front door was the only way for me to get to Veemon, the key element for my survival against this monster.

I found myself backed up again, but this time it was against the metal gates. There was nowhere else for me to run, either. The monster bared its fangs, slowly closing the distance between us, before jumping like the crazed animal it was. I saw my life flash before me, replays of all the great times I've had with my friends playing at super fast-forward speeds.

"Miss me?" a voice asked, and then a blue figure jabbed the monster in midair. I can't say I was ever more relieved to see Veemon. And I had to thank him for coming to me when he did, since I got to witness many of the great times I had with my friends.

"I had everything under control!" I lied. Of course, a two-year-old would also know that. "Who're we fighting?"

Veemon squinted his eyes and scratched his head, as though this was a digimon whose name escaped him. "Uhh... oh right, he's Gazimon."

"Wait... did you say Gizamon?"

"No, I said Gazimon. Gizamon's the sea monster that tried eating you at the beach. Gazimon's this land monster that's trying to eat you in your own front yard."

"Oh, okay then," I replied. Nothing better than sarcastic remarks delivered during moments of danger.

Gazimon was probably really angry that we were confusing him with someone else. He roared as he stood up, rubbing his swollen chin. Veemon and I caught this, and we shared a look with each other before giving each other a high-5. For the record, before I stopped Veemon and convinced him to high-5, he almost resorted to "Head Bang!' again.

Gazimon jumped at us, but I got the same fiery sensation that had been bugging me for the past four days. I raised my leg and caught him in the chest. With a simple flick of the ankle, Gazimon went for a little ride in midair. Veemon took this chance to jab him in the stomach, before head butting him on the back. Gazimon groaned in pain as he crashed onto the floor.

Slowly, Veemon and I watched him fade into data, which then floated off into the sky as well. Gazimon must've been weak, since he landed in a patch of flowers.

"So..." I started, making conversation. "What happened to Elecmon?"

"I don't know," Veemon answered. "I fainted a while after you did, and when I awoke Elecmon was already gone. Then, I heard the ambulance so I crept up to your room to wait until they passed. Unfortunately, they kidnapped you."

"Look, they didn't kidnap me," I reasoned, "they just brought me to the hospital so that I could receive emergency treatment for the presence of high voltage in my body which didn't seem to be fading."

"Did they ask for you permission?"

"Well, no, but..." For what seemed like eternity, I worked my brain trying to find a suitable answer. None came to me. "Uhh, at least you had the brains to creep up to my room."

Veemon smiled proudly.

"Wait, you went into my room?" I asked, my tone rising. "Without my permission?" I almost strangled Veemon (out of fun) when someone called my name.

"Hey, am I interrupting anything?" Dylan asked from the gate. "I just came to hand you a list of today's homework. And you might want to keep Veemon indoors. I almost had a heart attack when I saw you two dancing around childishly."

He left hurriedly before I could argue.

There was awkward silence after this, which Veemon broke by slamming into my back with his head. I don't know how long I chased him around the garden playfully, or how many times I had tripped over my own legs and fallen, but I _did_ know that this was going to be added to my album entitled 'The Best Times of My Life' (I know I don't have any photos, but please don't spoil the moment).

* * *

><p>There are several things I'd like to point out. One, this doesn't have much of anything in it, similar to the previous chapter. To come clean, these last two chapters were meant to be fillers. Okay, just needed to clarify that so no one accuses me of losing interest in writing. Two, this story chapter seems to be the one with the least words among all five chapters so far.<p>

To make up for my lousy performance in these last two chapters, I'm going to give it my all for Chapter 6. One, because it's where the main story continues, and two, because there's going to be more action. I am actually shaking with excitement to write Chapter 6, though I have no idea why.

Oh, and one more thing. In this story, Hiroto will probably be going to the hospital way more often than before due to his not-so-godliness.

Please read and review!


	6. Another Day in the Life

S.G  
><em>yay, an update! You must forgive any spelling issues, I'm dead tired.<br>OK- IM WAITING FOR THE OC, and new chopper.  
><em>Okay... well, here's the new chapter, and the OC.

Phantomgirl96  
><em>I didn't see an OC!<em>  
>I think I mentioned the fact that I said 'coming soon', not 'in the next chapter'. Then again, when people say soon, they usually mean the next chapter, so... my bad! Even so, I hope you enjoy this chapter!<p>

pokemon fan 1991  
><em>I hope the next chapter is good.<br>I did like this chapter lol  
><em>Well, then, please read on. :)

S.G  
><em>oops SEE! I *TOLD* YOU! I ment chapter not chopper, coulda sworn that said capter when I wrote it.<br>_I coulda' sworn it said chapter too when I first read it... Oh well, can't blame anyone except ourselves when our drowziness stimulates optical illusions, can we?

Rc1121  
><em>So I'm gonna guess we just saw a glimpse of the Main Big Bad(Internet term for the main villian) of the Arc and MentorSupporter for the good guys. Wonder how this is gonna pan out.  
>Maybe Elecmon felt that his newly claimed territory was being threatned by Hiro and Veemon. The guy didn't seem to have the usual intelligence of sentient digimon.<br>Update soon!  
><em>Yes, you just saw the Main Big Bad and the Mentor/Supporter, though I doubt any of you can guess who it is. Or at least I hope not.  
>If I wasn't mistaken, Elecmon ran <em>into<em> the classroom, which was clearly Veemon's 'territory'. Well, I guess this is also a theory, but this will remain a mystery until... well, until something comes up. :)

To all my readers, please not that this is _not_ going down. I was just unable to complete this in time because of some school functions, a long-needed vacation, a teensy-weensy bit of writer's block, and a little uploading problem. Hopefully this makes up for everything, including the shortness of Chapters 4 and 5.

Digimon Miracles  
>The Start of Miracles<br>Chapter 6: Another Day in the Life

The next day, I woke up feeling refreshed. I went downstairs before my brother or sisters awoke, and therefore got my pick of the food in the fridge. I ingested three bowls of ramen in under ten minutes (no, I'm not usually a glutton) and washed it all down with a cup of orange juice. Veemon ate more than I did, taking four bowls of ramen and three glasses of orange juice. I managed to get us to school without getting attacked too much. The only attacks we received were traffic jams, rogue pets, wild dogs, and a piece of gum that almost stuck my shoe to the pavement.

At my school, I bumped into my class teacher at the main gate. He looked pretty stern, and then gave me an annoying lecture about punctuality and the effects tardiness had on my life. Ten minutes into the lecture, I suspected Yuki fibbing to the teachers and making up stories about me. Again. I took out the medical slip Yuna's father gave me the day before, and as soon as I waved it in front of his eyes, he walked away as though no misunderstanding had happened between us.

Back in class, I double-checked my table and chair to make sure Yuki hadn't done too much damage to them. There were some chocolate stains on my table, but that could be easily wiped off. My chair didn't seem to be tampered with, so I threw my bag down on it (which let out a great 'oof') and turned to the back to face my group of friends.

"So, how're you feeling?" Lance asked.

"Well, since I had over a day's rest, I think I'll be just fine," I replied.

"Just fine?" Minnie raised an eyebrow. I shot her a look that said 'keep quiet' but she ignored it. "You were barely able to walk yesterday, and you needed me to accompany you to the receptionist because you were so insistent on being discharged as soon as possible."

"Wait..." Yuna stared at me. "So, you were... paralyzed?"

I could tell she was trying real hard to suppress her smile, but her efforts were futile. Soon, she burst out into a fit of laughter, followed by my other friends. I raised my hands in defeat, saying, "Okay, okay, you win."

"Then you're guilty of lying," Dylan pointed his index finger at me. "Which means you'll be buying us recess for the next two days."

"Maybe Minnie's not the only free-product lover," Lance whispered.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Dylan snapped.

Our conversation was cut short when we heard footsteps outside the class. Yes, we have really sharp hearing, since we're dead scared of our discipline teacher. Lucky for us, it was only our Maths teacher. To be brutally honest with you all, Maths class that day was really easy, and thus really boring. All the teacher taught us was how to calculate the areas of shapes and volumes of solids, which everyone had already learnt last year.

Japanese class was next, and believe me when I tell you it was worse than Math class. I mean, I love Japanese and all, but this teacher made the subject and language really boring. The teacher was going on and on about adjectives and adverbs, something which everyone should've already learnt in kindergarten, if not Grade 1. Halfway into the class, my eyes were drooping with drowsiness until someone knocked on the door.

He wasn't anyone I had seen before. He had neck-length jet-black hair with some white streaks in it. His eyes were of a striking red colour, which contrasted his peach-coloured skin. He wore a black long-sleeved jacket above a white shirt along with some black slacks and a pair of dark blue sneakers. He had shoulder pads which were decorated with mysterious silver patterns. There was also an inverted pentagram on a necklace tied to his neck. He wore two black gloves, which seemed to be made of leather. He wore three interconnecting belts, and a small sash that partially covered his right leg.

"Everyone, a new student will be joining our class starting today," the teacher grunted. There were 'oohs' and 'aahs' coming from the back, and most of them were from girls. Me? I was partially stunned by his piercing red eyes. "His name is... uh..."

"Seishirou Syuusuke."

"Ah, yes, Seishirou Syuusuke. I knew that all along. You can sit over there," the teacher said as he pointed to the back right corner of the class.

Seishirou walked without stopping to say "Hi' or 'Hello' to any of the girls he passed, who looked really determined to become his fans. I eyed him suspiciously as he walked to the back. Other than his name, he didn't tell anyone anything at all. Was he trying to hide something? Maybe I was just overthinking things. I had been exactly the same when I first came to Saikou, and had stayed a loner until Lance befriended me. As I turned back to concentrate on the boring vocabulary the teacher was teaching, I spotted something shiny dangling from one of Seishirou's three belts.

Next up was Geography, which was neither easy nor hard, but really annoying. The teacher would once in a while point at a student and ask a super hard question. The said student would then be unable to answer the question due to its difficulty, and therefore be forced to stand for the rest of the period. Sad, right? At about question number six, she pointed to Seishirou. I pitied the kid, but I guess I didn't have to. He stood up and easily got it correct. There were even more 'oohs' and 'aahs' but I didn't care.

After that was recess. The kid had already left the classroom before I had even managed to put any of my books away. My eyes kept darting to his belt, where I found myself drawn to the mysterious shiny item. It was an irregular golden hexagon with a blue crystal in the middle, and two silver and gold wing-like structures sticking out on either side of the hexagon. I might be overreacting or exaggerating, but I could've sworn I saw a creature moving about inside the crystal.

I got a cheeseburger at the canteen, and walked to my usual spot with my friends. To my surprise, the new kid, Seishirou, was sitting on my seat with my friends. Plus, since there weren't more than five seats at the round table (this is an ordinary wooden round table, not King Arthur's round table for knights), I had nowhere to sit.

"Hey, excuse me, this is my seat," I said as I stood behind him.

He turned around to face me. His red eyes looked menacing, but I could spot a kind of softness to them. It was a trait that no one would've ever spotted from a distance. I guess you can say his irises were of a reddish pink colour. Even when his face remained motionless, I almost cowered in fear before him. Hey, don't blame me for feeling scared. It's not my fault he has _red_ eyes.

"Technically, your name isn't here," he argued, "and since I got here first, this makes this seat mine. Go find your own."

"Why you-" I tried to restrain my anger.

"Now, now," Lance stood between us, his arms spread in case we tried something funny against each other. Truthfully, I was really tempted to jab this kid in the face. I don't know why, but I was just tempted to do it. "Hiroto, do you, you know, mind giving Seishirou a chance?"

"Come on," Minnie added in. "It's just for a while."

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. To them, 'a while' could easily amount up to a few weeks. "Fine. I'll go sit somewhere else for 'a while'."

Surprisingly, I headed for the trash bin and dumped my burger. Gosh, I was starving, but I was absolutely in no mood to eat. I glanced back at my friends, who seemed to be having a great time. Dylan and Yuna laughed as Seishirou told them a joke. It had something to do with hieroglyphics and Egyptians. Then, Yuna whispered something among the group and they burst into laughter. It was quite awkward seeing Seishirou, with his red eyes, laugh like a kid.

I returned to the 'tower' in the middle of the school grounds, and I placed my head in my hands. Maybe I could talk things out with Veemon, tell him some of my troubles, and he'd probably be able to help. Yeah right, by threatening to head-bang Seishirou. Even so, talking to Veemon seemed like a way better option than going back to the table. I don't know why, but there was just this feeling I've been having ever since I met Seishirou. It's kind of hard to explain, though.

"Aww, is the little kid done crying like a big _baby_ already?" someone snickered a few metres in front of me.

I lifted my head and my eyes widened, seeing what-might-be my biggest nightmare come to life. Standing there, with his sword neatly placed behind his back, was Drake Ren. And he wasn't alone. There was a creature standing beside him that looked suspiciously like Shoutmon. However, I could tell that it was definitely not the little creature. This one was more suited up for war, like it was created for the purpose of spreading chaos wherever it went. Knowing Drake, that was probably true.

The creature had Shoutmon's head, though it was now covered in metal. Its body had two small blades on the back, and one spike on the front. Its fingers had been 'upgraded' to claws. Its feet had small rockets behind them, and its tail was complete with spikes at the tip. Instead of wielding its microphone, this Shoutmon now seemed to fight with his claws, as he would often slice the air or the ground. I could see vibrations in the air where his claws went, and the claws also cut into the ground like it was made of melted butter.

"Have I introduced you to my new Shoutmon?" Drake asked, grinning like a madman. "He's stronger, faster, and smarter than the previous Shoutmon. Then again, you'll soon see for yourself."

"You... bio-modified Shoutmon?" I said unbelievably. "Don't you know digimon are living things?"

"Heck, like I care," Drake swatted that question away. "If they can fight, that's good enough for me. Besides, I have a bone to pick with someone, and this upgraded Shoutmon is going to help me!"

My body shivered at the thought of his words. Was he talking about me? I _di__d _beat him real bad last time.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, standing up. If anything happened, I'd have to be prepared to bolt for my life. Sprinting back to class was going to be easy but I doubted I could outrun Drake and Shoutmon, especially if Drake's been planning his revenge for some time. Things were not looking good for me.

"I'm here to say congratulations," Drake smiled. "You beat me," he said as though those were the best words he could think up, "gotten my attention, and now I'm going to reward you... with death!" You don't usually get this type of hatred from street fighters, do you?

He drew his sword and sliced downwards. I rolled away, and his sword got caught in some of the fountain's stone slabs. He attempted to withdraw his sword, but to no avail. He yelled for Shoutmon to get me, and I found myself flying three metres backwards as a result of a powerful head-butt. Big ouch. Then, Shoutmon cut a hole in my right sleeve as I attempted to evade his razor-sharp claws. Then, he gave my right leg three cuts as I tried to evade him again.

I stumbled to my feet and ran as quickly as possible to the stairs. However, Drake hadn't been at all kidding when he stated that Shoutmon was now quicker than before. Shoutmon flew to me and overtook me with the help of his rocket-feet. He slammed into me with his spike-tipped tail and sent me tumbling onto the floor. As I got up, I realized that Shoutmon had completely blocked off my route to the stairs. I took three steps backwards, and that was when Drake freed his sword. I saw only one way out of this, and it included a very big risk.

Call me insane, but I dived towards Shoutmon.

Shoutmon was able to catch my arm with his claws, giving my left arm another three scratches. I kicked him in the chest, sending him tumbling backards. However, I got a sharp pain in my foot and I realized I had kicked Shoutmon in the spike of his chest. I didn't have enough time to allow the pain to properly settle down, as Drake was approaching me with his longsword.

He slashed horizontally, and I ducked just in time to evade it. It did, unfortunately, slice off two or three strands of my hair, though. I copied Veemon and head-butted him in the stomach, forcing him two steps backwards. Then, I kicked the sword out of his hand with one leg, and then knocking him in the face with the other. Through the corner of my eye, I could see Shoutmon recovering, and I was not liking the odds of facing the two of them alone.

I dashed to the stairs, and I heard Drake issue a command to Shoutmon. It was somewhat an insult as to why Shoutmon was unable to prevent me from getting up. Poor digimon, I thought, but I pushed the thought out of my head, knowing that I had to get to class ahead of them and get to DemiVeemon. Back in class, I unzipped my bag (obviously) and pulled DemiVeemon out. He was chewing suspiciously on a piece of paper that had my handwriting on it. He spat it out once he realized it didn't taste anything like chocolate.

"DemiVeemon, we have a really big situation," I started, but apparently, he knew about it.

"Yeah, yeah, a psycho digimon is coming after you and you need me to digivolve to fend him off," DemiVeemon said this as though he'd dealth with this a million times. That could've been true, since I knew squat about his life in the digital world.

"Do you know it's Drake and Shoutmon?"

"Well, no, but what's there to worry about?" DemiVeemon asked, tearing another piece of paper and then placing it in his mouth. He then, once again, spat it out. "That did _not_ taste like white chocolate!"

"Drake upgraded Shoutmon with... I don't know, but he is now _much_ stronger than before," I briefed. DemiVeemon tensed at the word 'upgraded' and I knew how he felt. Turning a living creature into a cyborg just for the sake of power was insane. Then again, this was Drake we were talking about. He _was_ insane.

DemiVeemon hesitated for a while, as though he was mentally debating whether or not to digivolve. I had absolutely no idea what was going on within that thick skull of his. Finally, he took out one of my exercise books, digivolved into Veemon, put the entire exercise book in his mouth, and then spat it back out. Doesn't he ever learn?

After convincing him that exercise books were not thin strips of white chocolate with lines on them, the two of us ran outside. I looked towards the stairs and Drake was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed and his longsword positioned neatly behind his back. Shoutmon was standing beside him, as still and emotionless as ever.

Our eyes met, and some sort of understanding passed through us. No, not the kind of 'Okay, we'll be off each other's backs' kind of understanding, but more of the 'Let's do this, right here, right now' kind of understanding. A second later, the four of us – humans and digimon – sprinted towards each other. I'd bet my entire year's allowance that this would've been a killer scene if someone taped it and put it in a movie. Of course, that was just theoretically speaking, since digimon were meant to be kept a secret.

Drake jumped up and tried to deliver a flying kick my way. I rolled under him and he landed behind me. Somewhere next to us, Veemon punched Shoutmon (who didn't seem at all hurt), only to be countered by a strong slash. Veemon was thrown back, and I caught him just in time. Drake pounced on us, but I rolled away, causing him to drop onto the ground with an 'oof'. Kinda' reminds me of Veemon's grunts.

From behind Drake, Shoutmon zoomed at us with his rocket-feet. It was quite impressive seeing Shoutmon fly on those things alone. I threw Veemon upwards, but still Shoutmon came towards me. I guess Drake had given him specific orders to attack me and nobody else. I somersaulted backwards, evading Shoutmon's slashes, before kicking him in the face. He flew backwards, only to be smashed to the ground by Veemon's forehead.

Drake looked bored of this fair hand-to-hand combat situation, and drew his sword. He ran towards us, and it was because of Veemon's hard forehead that I was saved. He jumped up and met Drake's sword with his forehead, causing a minor shockwave. Veemon repelled backwards, and I collapsed backwards catching him. Drake's sword, however, didn't recoil back at him. It didn't even look harmed in any possible way.

Shoutmon hovered above the ground, and Drake threw him at us. He then threw his sword to accompany Shoutmon, and believe me when I say it's hard to evade both at the same time. I managed to slap the sword on the blunt side, redirecting it into a concrete pillar, where it stuck out perpendicular to the pillar. Veemon jumped and engaged Shoutmon in a midair battle, with the former and latter trading punches and slashes. Veemon ended their short fight with a head-butt that didn't seem to faze Shoutmon.

Shoutmon rocketed himself towards us, slashing and clawing with insane speed. At first, I thought he was trying to use brute force (or in this case, speed) to destroy Veemon and I. Then, as time passed, I saw that he was trying to stall time for Drake to reach for his sword. Veemon seemed to figure this out as well, and then went from defensive to offensive. With a single punch, Veemon sent Shoutmon sliding backwards, giving me enough opening to rush through the mechanical cyborg.

I jumped for the sword handle, but Drake was quicker than me. He pulled the sword out of the pillar before I was even close to it, and held it like it weighed nothing. He did a spinning slash, a move that I admit is very deadly should you get hit by it, but luckily I managed to duck in time. He tried another slash, and I would've been cut into two had I not sidestepped his downwards slash. I kicked him in the chest, and he stumbled backwards a bit.

I had my next few moves planned out perfectly: I'd knee him in the stomach, punch his face, swipe his legs from under him, and knee his back – not necessarily in that precise order. However, Shoutmon just _had_ to interfere. He pushed Veemon aside when they were engaged in a serious grapple and came rushing back for Drake. Weird... I thought that transforming Shoutmon into a cyborg would've washed him clean of all his feelings and loyalty towards Drake. Apparently, I was wrong.

I wanted to kick Shoutmon with my heel, when I heard something that paralyzed me with confusion.

"...help me..."

I blinked my eyes several times. Shoutmon hadn't just... talked... had he? No, I was fairly sure that he didn't move his mouth, which was still visible underneath the made-up helmet. Instead, the voice had sounded like an echo in the back of my head, as though someone had transmitted the sound waves to my head. I have to admit – the thought of my brain being a sound wave receiver was kind of creepy.

In my moment of shock, Drake regained his composure. He kicked Shoutmon out of the way (talk about grateful) and slashed downwards. Veemon blocked the hit with his forehead, and the two of them struggled, trying to see who had the strength to push the other back. I should've helped, but I was too busy looking at Shoutmon, trying to see if he really _had_ asked me for help.

Just then, he rose and rushed at me with his claws. Okay, forget the 'help' thing. There was no way Shoutmon would ask for my help when he was trying to destroy me, unless he had done it for a distraction. I raised my hands in an X position, and Shoutmon slammed into me. The two of us collapsed onto the floor, but Shoutmon recovered and got up quicker than I could. Well, he was a robot, so there was no wonder he didn't feel much pain.

I struggled up, and threw a fist at Shoutmon, when something stopped me again.

"...save me... please..."

The voice stunned me enough for Shoutmon to knock me backwards. Don't worry, I don't fall flat on my butt all the time. I just skidded to a stop about five feet away, where I found myself backed up against Veemon. Even though there was a mad samurai and a cyborg digimon occupying my concentration, I couldn't help but feel creeped. Both times I had heard the voice, it was before I was about to attack Shoutmon. However, both times, Shoutmon had attacked me afterwards, so it couldn't be his voice, right?

Still, there was a familiarity to the voice that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I was about to assume it was Shoutmon's voice when Veemon nudged me back to reality.

"Rock Soul," the cyborg buzzed. Okay, that was _not_ what Shoutmon sounded like. The ordinary Shoutmon had more of a happy, go-lucky kind of voice. Yes, this coming from the kid who almost got annihilated by the 'happy, go-lucky' digimon. But now, _this_ Shoutmon had a voice that sounded like a computer. It's hard to explain, but it was definitely not the voice that had echoed in my head earlier.

Anyway, enough with the comparing. Let's get back to Shoutmon attacking us, shall we? A red flaming ball materialized in his right hand, growing bigger and bigger with every passing moment. When it was the size of a basketball, Shoutmon flung it right at us. I looked back, and at the same time, Drake was running towards Veemon and I with his sword. That's when I got a crazy idea.

I grabbed Veemon and then jumped out of the way. The fireball would've incinerated Drake's face if he hadn't cut it in half, dissipating it. I wasn't sure if his sword was that truly strong and fire resistant, or if Shoutmon had just extinguished the flames to save Drake's hide, but I wasn't waiting to find out. I ran to Drake and tackled him to the ground. However, he was still holding onto his sword, so I retreated to avoid being chopped up. Veemon was having better luck, going hand-to-hand with Shoutmon. The two of them seemed to be having another similar battle in midair.

Drake got up and slashed. I bent my body backwards, and the sharp blade missed my nose by a millimetre. I backed up against the railing as Drake held onto the longsword, his only advantage. I used the railing for support and kicked Drake in the chest with both legs. He came running again, swinging his sword like a lunatic. I somersaulted backwards to evade his attack, though what I got was just as painful. I landed on the ground floor, my legs stiff with pain to the point of immobility.

I then saw Shoutmon lifting Veemon by the stomach, holding him dangerously over the railing. Shoutmon threw him at me, and I was partially relieved since that meant I didn't have to dive to save Veemon. However, my legs buckled under the weight of both of us, and we went down. Of course, Veemon had me as a cushion, but this cushion was going to wake up feeling really painful tomorrow. That is, if I even made it through today.

Drake jumped down, and I don't know what got into me, but I raised my pained legs and nailed him in the stomach. Veemon leapt up and head-butted him in the chin, before punching him backwards. Shoutmon rocket-boosted down on us, and we didn't have much luck fending him off. He grabbed the both of us, me by the collar of my jacket and Veemon by his shoulder, and threw us into the nearest wall. Gosh, that Shoutmon had god-like strength. I wasn't sure that even ten of us students would've even stood a chance against him in a tug-of-war.

Shoutmon, after dropping us off, made a U-turn and came back. This time, I bounced forward, using the wall as a spring, and grabbed him by the neck. I spun around, still holding onto him, and threw him at Veemon. My digimon partner seemed way too pleased to have the chance to head-butt him real hard. The helmet Shoutmon was wearing cracked, and I figured we were making progress. Then again, I might've been exaggerating, since the crack was only at most one tenth of a millimetre wide.

I got up and turned around just in time to catch Drake's hand. The sword was not a centimetre away from my forehead, and if I surrendered to his strength now, he'd cut me down like melted butter. A bead of sweat trickled down my face, causing an irritable itch that wasn't helping my concentration. Surprisingly, this was much easier than handling my brother and sisters. Okay, sorry, lost my train of thought for a moment there.

Veemon jumped up from behind me and head-butted Drake in the forehead, sending the latter stumbling backwards. I knew Drake was strong (I'd witnessed the dude fight before), but even there and then I was debating whether or not to place a call to the hospital. A blow like that from Veemon could quite well leave him in a six-month coma with amnesia when he awoke. Then again, Drake got up so quickly I pushed away all thoughts regarding his safety.

I was about to team up with Veemon on him again, when something pushed us from behind. Darn it, in all the commotion about Drake (okay, not _that_ much commotion), we had totally forgotten about Shoutmon (okay, we didn't _totally_ forget about him, but he slipped our minds for a moment). Drake delivered a kick to me chest while he grabbed onto Veemon.

Needless to say, I fell backwards. He threw Veemon at me, and having Veemon closer with me this time did not help keep my confidence up. Shoutmon buzzed the words 'Rock Soul' again, and a giant flaming ball appeared in his hand. Drake held his sword as though he wanted to personally cut our bodies to shreds after Shoutmon was done burning us up. It was all about to go underway when we heard someone call out.

"Stop!"

Looking behind Drake and Shoutmon, the four of us saw a girl.

She was probably my age – eleven, or somewhere close to that. She had lustrous brown hair that flowed all the way down to her mid-back. She donned a white shirt underneath a blue mini-jacket, and also had on a blue skirt with yellow edges that went down to her knees. She also wore white socks, which went perfectly well with her white sneakers. When I looked into her eyes, they reminded me of the sky – soft and calm. I let out a gasp as I realized she was the girl who had rescued me (kind of) when Drake almost defeated me last Saturday.

There was a creature standing beside her, which was unmistakably a digimon. It had purple fur all over its body, with the exception of the tip of its tail, its paws, its feet, its underside and its snout, which were white in colour. Its two sharp, pointy ears had black stripes. There was also a huge red crystal embedded in its forehead, which shone as brightly as the sun. I found myself wondering who had a stronger forehead – Veemon or this digimon. The digimon also had two small bat wings that gave it a sort-of devilish and mischievous look, but probably not the ability to fly.

"Dorumon, fire!" she called out.

The digimon beside her nodded and yelled, "Metal Cannon!". Dorumon let loose three metal cannonballs from his mouth. One knocked the longsword out of Drake's hands, the other knocked him in the gut (ouch) and the final one crashed into Shoutmon's face, creating a larger crack in his helmet.

I saw my chance and I tackled Drake to the ground while his attention was still fixed on Dorumon. He was probably thinking 'How _dare_ you attack me, the great Drake Ren, bla bla bla'. Veemon had the brains to do the same, and grounded the hovering Shoutmon with a jump. With a single head-butt, Shoutmon's helmet came off, and I wished it didn't. Not now, at least.

Shoutmon's face was a complete mess. There were screw holes here and there, probably where the helmet was (shivering at the thought) screwed in. His cheeks also had black marks on them, the result of a fire. Maybe Drake had tried melding his face together with the shield. His nose was badly bent to one side, most likely due to being hammered. One of his eyes had a scar going through it, and I mean _right_ through it, even the eyeball. Shoutmon may have been my enemy, but seeing him in this condition only fueled my anger towards Drake.

Drake got up and grasped for his longsword. He almost slashed me, when Dorumon came to my rescue. A metal ball hit Drake in the face, and he fainted, his longsword making an ear-piercing 'clang' sound as it fell. I wanted to believe this was over. I wanted to believe that we'd won for today. However, life is never easy as Shoutmon had other ideas.

He got free from Veemon's grapple, and then glowed red. The glowing got so intense I couldn't see his face clearly, which I was (partly) grateful for. However, when something glows red, it usually meant explosive energy was being compacted within that certain object, which usually made it go 'ka-boom!'. For the record, even when I almost went 'ka-boom!' several times, I did _not_ want to experience it. I ran towards Shoutmon, planning kicking him in the face, when something stopped me in my tracks.

"...save me... please... help... me..." a voice pleaded. Okay, now I was one hundred percent sure it was Shoutmon pleading me for help. I don't know why, but I just felt this connection. It was as if I understood that he was mentally communicating with me, asking me for my help. Hey, don't ask me how I knew it. I just _did_.

"Kid, get out of the way!" Dorumon warned. I was snapped back to reality as I saw Shoutmon racing towards me, now completely basked in a glowing red form. His claws were glowing white and outstretched, ready to slash me.

"Hiroto! Look out!" Veemon exclaimed.

I panicked as Shoutmon closed in on me. I was standing way too close to dodge his incoming attack. Veemon, being a melee fighter, was too far away to properly keep Shoutmon busy while I retreated. Dorumon wouldn't be of any help either. His metal cannonballs could probably hit me from that distance, and he must've not wanted to risk it.

To my surprise, it was the girl who rescued me. She tackled me from the side, sending the two of us collapsing. Shoutmon skidded to as top (can you skid to a stop if you're flying?) and turned around. He dashed at me once again, but this time Veemon and Dorumon blocked him off.

Assessing the situation more clearly now, I could see that Shoutmon's form was vibrating. Oh no, this was _not_ good. This could either mean that he'd be exploding from the compacted energy within him, or that he was going to release a fart so stinky we'd pass out. Okay, I'm going with the first option. Great, that means I have to stop him, somehow, or let Saikou – plus a few other districts close by – explode as a result of Shoutmon's energy.

A certain sensation tingled within me. About time, too, otherwise I'd have my face blown up, an experience that I was not willing to try. I ran to Shoutmon, and as I passed Veemon, he followed me from behind. I didn't know what was more surprising – the fact that the girl and Dorumon also started running, or the fact that Shoutmon didn't seem to mind that we were going to attack him.

I whacked Shoutmon in the chest (I think it's his chest, though I couldn't be sure as his entire body was enveloped in a strange red light) with the sole of my foot. Then, the girl grabbed him and spun him round and round, releasing him on her third spin. Dorumon fired three cannonballs that hit their target square in the head. Veemon jumped and head-butted Shoutmon downwards. It was quite amazing that Shoutmon didn't explode upon impact.

The girl and I ran forward as Shoutmon hovered unsteadily. We both grabbed one hand each, stretching him so that he was fully exposed. Shoutmon didn't seem to struggle against our hold, which could mean good news or bad news. Dorumon jumped up and fired three more metal cannonballs from the sky, all of which managed to strike Shoutmon. Veemon then leapt up into the sky and came careening down. He smashed into Shoutmon's chest like a rocket, creating a huge shockwave that shattered all the glasses in the school. I wondered how the nerds would take it, or if anyone heard it at all.

Looking at Shoutmon's ruined body, I half-wished he had exploded. He was now back to the Shoutmon I had fought before, but he was broken beyond repair, physically and probably mentally. He wasn't moving a muscle, and his chest didn't even rise or drop as the result of a heartbeat. Even if he was a digimon, he still needed to breathe, especially now that Drake's robotic upgrades were gone.

Shoutmon's face was as bad as before, if not worse. His chest had a hole in it (about six centimetres wide where his heart should've been), and his right arm was gone. His left arm was torn apart, with the wounds being digital space. His legs weren't doing any better. One of his legs were fully attached, with only major wounds that seemed to be growing larger by the second. His other leg was less fortunate, and had been blown off from the knee onwards. His tail had so many digital holes in it I wouldn't dare count them all. Laying beside him was his microphone, which was the only thing undamaged.

"Don't digimon usually disappear or disintegrate into data when they're defeated?" I wondered out loud, horrified.

"Well, that's true. But in this case..." Veemon's voice trailed off.

"Dorumon, you got something to say?" the girl asked.

"Umm... when a digimon is defeated, it's true that he or she disintegrates into data and is then reborn in the digital world as an entirely new offspring, with barely any memories of its past life," Dorumon started. "However, there are times, though it happens very rarely, when a digimon is badly wounded but not defeated. Their condition then either gets better or worse. If it worsens, then the digimon dissipates into data."

"So, in a way, you're saying Shoutmon is suffering inside that wrecked body of his?" I asked. "And the only way we can reduce the pain is by either healing him or-" I held my tongue as I was about to say 'destroy' "-deleting him?"

"I guess so," Veemon replied sadly.

The girl seemed to tense. Dorumon noticed this, and asked, "What's wrong, Selene?"

"The samurai-" she started, but I cut her off.

"Drake?"

"Yes, him. He's gone," she continued.

I stood up and looked around. Selene was right. Drake was missing in action. He had probably cowardly bolted away when he realized Shoutmon couldn't win against two digidestined, and not come back to even check on his digimon partner. For all I know, he could be scheming up an even stronger upgrade for Shoutmon now.

"Let's find him and give him a good pounding and head-butting for treating us digimon like this!" Veemon said, pounding his fists. Dorumon nodded.

"No," I said. "We gotta' get Shoutmon to safety first and, if possible, heal him. _Then_, we'll worry about Drake."

Veemon and Dorumon opened their mouths to protest, but Selene cut them off. "Come on, other than his freaking longsword, what harm can he bring? Without Shoutmon, he's just another sad bully who needs to be taught a lesson by the authorities. With Shoutmon out of his possession, he's no more our responsibility. So why don't we just honour Shoutmon and try saving him before we go hunting for his partner?"

"Well, then it's settled," I said before Veemon could refuse. I shot him a stern look that said 'Keep quiet or there won't be chocolate for a month!' and he seemed to understand.

However, my dilemma didn't end there. As soon as I finished my sentence, I saw Selene staring right at me. "You _do_ have a plan for making Shoutmon good as new, right?"

"Uhh..." I stammered.

"Well?" Selene asked.

"To be honest, I didn't think I'd make it this far into the argument," I said. Veemon face-palmed and Dorumon did a comedic fall backwards. Selene just rolled her eyes. "Let's just go over to my house and... uhh, figure things out from there."

"Won't the teachers be mad at you for skipping classes?" Selene asked, walking over to the cupid fountain.

"As if they're ever _not_ mad at me," I groaned. "My sister fibs way too much. Wait here and I'll go get my backpack."

When I reached my classroom, I almost felt sorry for leaving. I had, in a way, destroyed most of the first floor classrooms, even though Veemon and I had done so to protect ourselves from Drake. However, I didn't think writing ' a madman with a longsword terrorized me and I had to fight back for the sake of survival' would've been accepted by the principal. I was going to be in _so_ much trouble when I returned the next day, that is, if Rinji doesn't chew my head off tonight when he finds out about this.

Around five minutes later, I met up with Selene at the fountain. She was placing Dorimon – Dorumon's degenerated form – into her black bag, kinda' similar to what I do with Veemon. The only difference was that her bag had much more space than mine, with only a half-filled bottle and a pen instead of a dozen textbooks. Whatever school she went to, it was probably paradise with no homework. Heck, the lack of books probably meant the lack of studying. Or, it could just mean they had lockers, which are quite useful in my opinion.

"Ready to go?" I asked, carrying my bag. I figured this way would be better instead of having it slung across my shoulder as we walked home.

"I was ready to go five minutes ago," she replied. "Who's going to carry Shoutmon?"

"I guess I'll do it," I volunteered. As soon as she dumped Shoutmon into my hands, I almost regretted my decision. You know, for a half-broken digimon that wasn't more than a metre tall, he weighed a ton. However, Selene evened the odds (sort of) by holding onto his mike.

"You sure you can carry that?" she held her smile. "You look like you're ready to drop, literally."

"Nah, I'll be fine," I lied. "Now let's get going before my knees buckle from under me."

We chatted a little as we walked the almost-empty streets that led to the Kiyoshi mansion. I was surprised I could even talk, as the weight of Shoutmon in my hands sent beads of sweat randomly trickling down my face. Almost no one seemed to be around, but those who saw us inquired if we were taking the robot (I think they meant Shoutmon) to the repair shop, which was in the opposite direction. They even asked what the microphone was for, which, for some unknown reason, made Selene stiffle laughs.

"Thanks," I said.

"For what?"

"For saving me back there. If you hadn't come, Drake would surely have ended me right there and then."

"Oh, that's okay," Selene smiled. "I was just walking by, and then I heard fighting and a little shouting. I came just in time to see Drake almost stabbing you with a sword and Shoutmon getting ready to burn you two into a crisp. Luckily I kept his attention at bay while you recovered, huh?"

"Yeah," I blindly agreed. "Though, you know, the students at the canteen didn't seem to hear Drake and I fighting, even when the canteen was just nearby. How could you, standing all the way at the gates, hear me and Drake fighting, when neither of us made even a sound?"

Selene inhaled deeply. "Do you ever get the feeling that there's someone special near you? Like, there's someone there who's ready to protect you at all cost?" For a moment, I thought she was going to do some love-related confession from the movies that I usually laughed at with my friends. "Well, when another digidestined is nearby, most digidestined are usually able to feel it. For some, the said digidestined has to be in close proximity, like right next to you. But, for others, they can sense another digidestined nearby even when they're a few dozen metres away."

"And you were able to sense Drake and I fighting each other?"

"Of course," she said. "Why? Weren't you able to sense something different about Drake?"

"No, not at all," I replied. "I still think I should thank you for what you did."

"Maybe you can buy me lunch sometime?"

"That is _not_ a good idea." It felt awkward talking as I held onto Shoutmon. "I was supposed to buy my friends recess for two days, but that didn't come true at all."

"Then, maybe you can answer a question," Selene pursed her lips, deep in thought. "Back when Shoutmon was about to... explode, I got this weird feeling inside of me. It was like nothing I'd ever felt before. Then, after you ran forward, my legs responded and joined in. Why's that?"

"To be truthful, I'm not sure," I admitted. "Ever since I met Veemon, which was last Friday, I've been having these weird feelings which let me turn the tables on foreign digimon. It just comes and goes whenever it wants to, I guess."

"Well, maybe that's just something special about you," Selene said brightly. "Maybe that's who you are. You could be the Digidestined of Victory, though in some occasions I guess the Digidestined of Bonds would fit in well, too."

"What are you talking about?"

"Every digidestined has a... trait, which is what he or she excels at," Selene explained. Note, I had no idea what she was talking about. "For example, I know a child of Protection, Hope, Confidence, and a few others."

"Which are you?"

"Patience. Of course, I'm not _tha__t _patient yet, but I'm working on it."

"Let's pretend I have no idea what you're talking about, because I really don't. Don't get mad – this is a compliment. I don't say 'I don't know' to just anybody."

"Oh, I feel _so_ special," Selene replied sarcastically. She then closed her eyes (which I thought was quite dangerous as we were still walking) and sighed in annoyance. For someone as smart as me, I was taking a mighty long time to understand this. "Okay. A child who has a certain important trait will be chosen by the Digital World to take up the responsibilities of a digidestined. That child's trait will be the thing that guides the said person when he or she is confused or at a dead end. Get it now?"

"I guess," I shrugged. "So how do you find out what kind of a digidestined you are?"

Selene shrugged. "You just _know_ when the time's right, I guess."

"Right..." I was about to question about something else – whether she truly believed we could heal Shoutmon – when a loud screeching cut me off.

Looking up, the two of us saw a swarm of dark creatures that looked kind of like bats. The only thing was their body. Instead of having the slim body that bats do, these had round puffy heads. The upper part of the face was covered by a black mask that had a picture of a skull on it as well as some stitches. Where their feet were, claws grew out. Each claw was about three quarters the size of the body, so it was a miracle those bat wings of theirs allowed them to fly. They looked like bird-bat hybrids. Oh, did I mention they also had bluish skin?

Selene looked at them, squinting her eyes to get a sharper view. Then, her eyes widened in surprise. "DemiDevimons! Run!"

Apparently, we didn't have to. More like we _couldn't_. Those bats came flying towards us, eyeing us with their striking yellow eyes like we were lunch. Probably right, though. Soon, they flew around us, surrounding us in our own personal hurricane of doom. Wherever I stepped, a mouth (with two very long canine fangs that made it look suspiciously like a vampire's mouth) or a claw would force me back in. Every once in a while, a bat would try and bombard us. However, we were losing roaming space, as the hurricane was tightening by the second.

I heard a 'zip' sound and DemiVeemon's head popped up from my backpack. Good timing, as I doubted I could've opened the bag by myself with a dying Shoutmon in my arms. I called out to him, "DemiVeemon, do you think you can help us clear a road out of this tornado?"

"Sure thing!" DemiVeemon answered cheerfully. He jumped out of my bag, digivolving as he did so.

"Dorimon, you help out too!" Selene unzipped her backpack with her free hand. Her other hand was holding tightly onto Shoutmon's microphone (for some reason, she felt like it was important). Dorimon leapt out of her bag and turned into Dorumon in midair.

Having two digimon try and break through this tornado didn't do us any good. Punching the DemiDevimon was like punching a wall of solid – Veemon's fist went through without actually injuring any of the bats. Dorumon's metal cannonballs were of little help as well. Whenever a DemiDevimon was hit by a cannonball, another DemiDevimon from the five dozen present would take its place. There seemed to be no end to the flying menaces.

I was tempted to drop Shoutmon and join in the fight. At least I could've _tried_ doing something. As I was about to place Shoutmon on the ground, Selene stopped me.

"Don't," she said, anticipating my move. "You have to get Shoutmon out of here. Take his microphone-" she balanced it on my arms as I needed both my hands to carry the red digimon, "-and do your best to get Shoutmon up and running again. I'll handle things here."

"You sure-"

"Yes! Now go!" She didn't seem in the mood for a discussion, so I just went with her plan.

"Veemon, we're going, now!" I yelled. I didn't know how I was going to get out of here, but Selene had also thought of that.

Dorumon fired continuous cannonballs at a certain spot, where I noticed the DemiDevimon were least concentrated at. I jumped through – the DemiDevimon scratched me as I attempted to escape – and ran for home. Trust me, it's not that easy to do with a heavy digimon in your hands, not to mention the need to balance the microphone. Veemon ran after me, and I half-wished I had told him to stay and help. There was no way – absolutely _no _possible way – Selene would be able to win this fight alone. There were just too many of them.

I looked around. The streets were empty. Everyone probably had the brains to run away when the hurricane showed up. Oh well, just makes it all the easier to run back to the Kiyoshi mansion without the need to snoop around. Oh, and did I mention Veemon grabbed a dozen chocolate bars at a nearby stall, which the owner had nicely abandoned?

As I raced back home, my mind kept wandering off to Selene. I hate it when that happens. I sometimes get totally side-tracked, and that usually gets me into a heap of trouble. The first destination I headed for was my room. Okay, why my room, you ask? Well, my siblings' rooms are off-limits. Someone might see me 'operating' on Shoutmon if I did so in the living room or the kitchen. The library didn't seem like the suitable place for what I was about to do, whatever it was. Note, I'm going to skip a few other rooms that seem to annoying to state.

Anyway, I left the door open behind me as I entered my room. I didn't feel the need to close it or lock it as my brother and sisters were still at school. I placed Shoutmon gently on the bed, and that was when I started panicking. Look, don't blame me for going into a state of panic. It's not like I had absolutely no idea of how to cure Shoutmon, whose condition was worsening with every passing second. In addition, the sound Veemon made while he annoying scarfed down the borrowed (more accurately, _stolen_) chocolate down his throat was not helping.

I was going overboard with the panicking. Okay, 'panicking' is an understatement. What do you call running-around-the-room-while-screaming-like-a-child-who-lost-his-candy? Whoa, give me a break. The only thing left of Shoutmon's slowly disintegrating body was his head, which wasn't much to look at. That didn't exactly give me any motivation to try and... do whatever I was supposed to do.

"Darn it!" I yelled in frustration. Shoutmon's neck was now gone, and his head was slowly disappearing.

In my anger, I slammed my fast on my bed, right next to where Shoutmon's head was placed. Then, when I lifted my fist, my anger all turned to shock. The tip of my fingers were glowing with black light. No, it wasn't black light, it was darkness. The darkness danced along my fingers, and I was paralyzed by complete shock. My fingers felt like they were on fire, probably a result of the dancing darkness on my hand. Then, the darkness stringed its way through the air towards Shoutmon. As soon as it touched the latter's body, it began returning, data by data.

Not the weirdest thing that's happened in my life, but you can bet I was still stunned. Where did _that_ come from? Once Shoutmon's body returned fully, the darkness faded along with the burning feeling manifesting in my hand. I snapped myself back to reality as Shoutmon's eyes fluttered open.

"W- Where am I?" Shoutmon blinked. His voice sounded weak, but I guess it would have to do for a digimon who just got revived.

"Well, you're in my house-"

"So now you're gonna' kill me, huh?"

"Nonsense!" Veemon snapped. I shrank back in surprise. Veemon saying 'nonsense' is probably as close to civilized as he would get. "Hiroto may be too sportlike, too intelligent, somewhat annoying, sometimes selfish-"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I think he gets the point." I shot a glare at the blue digimon, who still had three bars of chocolate in his hands.

"-but he's a good guy," Veemon finished.

"Besides, if we wanted you to die, we could've just left you disintegrating on the roadside," I added. Shoutmon's face gloomed. "Oh, sorry, not helping."

"I can't believe Drake left me... and just after two days..." Shoutmon sighed. There was a hint of disappointment and misery in his voice.

"Maybe he's waiting for you right now," I suggested, hoping to cheer him up.

"No, I can feel our bond broken," Shoutmon said. "A digimon is tied to his digidestined in the way that, if anything happens to his human partner, the digimon won't forgive himself. However, I can feel that bond broken."

"That's just your conscience talking," I comforted. The truth is I had no idea what he was saying.

"No, Hiroto," Veemon countered. "A digimon can literally sense a bond between him and his human partner. If that bond is broken, a digimon can easily feel it. It happens rarely, but is rumoured to be worse than death."

"Well, if all you need is a human partner, I'm willing to do it."

"Technically, Hiroto," Veemon looked away hesitantly. "Each digidestined can only have one digimon. If he takes up anymore, there'll be an imbalance in the laws of digimon and human bonding."

"We can't just leave Shoutmon alone," I argued back. "You said it yourself. If a digimon loses his or her partner, he could be wounded to the point of no return! Even if I only met Shoutmon twice, both times of which he tried to kill me, I still don't want to see him hallucinating and seeing strange things out of sadness!"

"It's okay, Hiroto," Shoutmon sighed. "At least I know there's _one_ human I can count on from now on." I had a suspicion he meant me, but at the moment, I was too stunned to speak. "I'll just go."

"Wait," I stopped him.

"Why don't you live here with us?" Veemon gave him a thumbs up and a cheerful smile. I wanted to stare at him and say 'what!' as I was still paranoid about my brother and sisters finding out about digimon. I was lucky I'd kept Veemon a secret for these past few days.

Oh gosh, this was turning into one of those sentimental moments that everyone always sees in movies, isn't it?

"No..." Shoutmon answered gloomily. "You all have already done me a big favour by healing me. Drake never did anything of that sort for me. He never even showed kindness. All he did was kick me around and force me to get stronger. I think it's better if I just... go."

"You sure you don't want to..." my voice trailed off. I already knew what his answer would be before he said it.

"Nah," Shoutmon forced a smile. "Goodbye, then."

Okay, some major changes take place in this chapter. One, Shoutmon _doesn't_ join Hiroto's group right away. Two, Alexandria's name is changed to Selene. This is to avoid the clashing of names in the second arc, where Alex will be introduced. Oh no, I just gave a spoiler, didn't I?

If anyone's wondering why I changed Shoutmon's appearance, then believe me when I say I have a good reason. The main bit is the fact that Shoutmon only reached Xros 2 with the help of Ballistamon. I doubt Drake would've been so lucky as to find all the necessary parts required to transform him into Xros 2. Sorry to all of you who can't picture his new form correctly. I tried to make it as tyrant-like as possible for a rookie.

Another possible big change – Hiroto doesn't heal Shoutmon with any sort of fancy gadget. Instead, the darkness that mysteriously emitted from his hands proved to be enough to save Shoutmon's life. No, I will not be revealing the secret to this secret power of Hiroto's. All will be explaind in due time... just not so soon. Otherwise, all the fun will be ruined, or 'spoiled', for everyone.

It also just dawned on me that it's been donkey years since I made a character info.

Name: Selene  
>Age: 11<br>Crest: Wisdom  
>Appearance: Brown mid-back-length hair, blue eyes, normal skin, white shirt, light blue mini-jacket, knee-length blue skirt with yellow edges, knee-high translucent white socks, and white sneakers.<br>Personality: Mature and solemn, but can also be cheerful when she wants to be. She was abandoned by her parents when she was five. Someone found her, and then raised her up ever since.  
>Likes: Sushi, Tennis, Jogging, Running<br>Dislikes: Mean people  
>Pros: Cooking, Tennis, Running<br>Cons: Sports other than tennis and badminton

Digimon Partner: Dorumon  
>Personality: Mature, though sometimes childish<br>Likes: Anything that Selene cooks up  
>Dislikes: Anything that a stranger cooks up<p>

Please read and review! I hope you all like it!


	7. A Lot to Learn

Super garurumon  
><em>donkey years? *Snickers* OC yay! 2 new characters (I think) that Seishirou guy with the pretty pretty shiney shiney, and Selene girl who knows about destined traits.<br>Hiroto watches too much t.v. always with the movie references. Little does he know there are movies about digimon.  
><em>Haha, wrong usage there. Sorry. Good point with the movie reference thing, too.

Tendou Souji  
><em>I'll be paying more attention to this story since Seishirou has appeared but with me just starting university, I'm not so sure if I can review just as often.<br>I see you put in the TransVice which I requested but I just want to inform you about its mechanics. Seishirou wears it on his right wrist and the 'wings' are connected to each other. They only open up when Seishirou is using it. Also, the crystal flashes when he activates it if you're unaware of this fact. The form which Seishirou's Digimon assumes when he emerges from the TransVice is influenced by Seishirou's actions prior to releasing his Digimon. If he simply holds up his arm, then Dracomon shall appear. If he traces his fingers over the crystal, then Coredramon shall appear. When he gets his crest(if you're planning on making the OCs get crests), he inserts it into the TransVice, making Wingdramon appear.  
>I kinda felt sorry for Shoutmon. He seems way more angsty than in the original story.<br>Can't wait for Dracomon to make his appearance and I hope that you can put in a scene where Veemon tries to socialize with him but receives the cold shoulder instead.  
>~Tendou Souji~<br>_After a little thinking, I've come up with an excuse for the 'strapped to belt' thing. In a battle, Seishirou wears the TransVice. On the other hand, when he's outside of battle, he straps it to his belt to avoid attention. I mean, wearing it on his wrist _would_ make it quite visible as compared to dangling it on his belt. Thanks for the TransVice operation manual, too.  
>No, I'm not planning on giving the digidestined Crests in this story. However, they <em>will<em> be able to digivolve to Ultimate. Oh, and this reminds me – what body movement would you like Seishirou to do when he wants to summon Slayerdramon, Dracomon's Mega form?  
>I've also decided to make the TransVice the official digivice here. I mean, seeing as every different set of digidestined have different types of digivices, it wouldn't be fair to let this generation have the D-3s, would it? I will give Seishirou some credit, though. The other digidestined's aren't as cool as Seishirou's as the latter upgraded his digivice. I hope you don't mind this.<br>I made Shoutmon angsty is because, in the original story, Shoutmon's help just benefited the pair way too much. I seem to recall Hiroto's power almost reaching godliness because of Shoutmon's assistances. Since I've agreed to lower Hiroto's power, Shoutmon won't be joining the team until a while later.  
>If I'm not mistaken, Seishirou will appear in Chapter 9 when he, like in the original story, saves Hiroto from Monochromons. And to point out, this story has the lack of Nate. :)<p>

NovelistOfTheSky  
><em>Hey, sorry about not reviewing for a while, life is hectic sadly. Just a quick review to say keep up the great work. Can't wait to see more from you and I wonder how you're going to write "Will" this time :P. I'll drop a more detail review next time .<br>_Life isn't life if it isn't hectic. Thanks for the encouragement, as usual. This time, Will's background is going to be more complicated. I'm not saying I'm changing how he lived. I'm just saying I added an extra fact to his life, but probably not in a way which you might expect. Needless to say, it's not for the worse.

Dowski  
><em>Another great chapter. I like the new character, and how this was changed around a bit from last time. <em>_Glad to know when my OC will be introduced :P lol. Keep up the great work!  
><em>Umm... what new character? Selene and Seishirou? By the way, thanks for the encouragement.

Phantomgirl96  
><em>I love your writing style!<br>Can't wait for the next update.  
><em>Thanks! Really! :D

The Silent Insomniac  
><em>Ahhh so we got a rewrite.<br>First, I'd like to applaud you for that. Very few writers overhaul their story when they were already far into the plot. :)  
>Second, the decision is paying off. I don't even recall the original and I can already tell you're doing a better job. That's great. It doesn't answer all my gripes about the writing style, but the improvement is sufficient enough.<br>Keep on writin'.  
><em>Thanks. And regarding the flaws in my writing style, can you please give me some advice as to how I may be able to improve it?

Rye Lee  
><em>Do you still need OC's? If so I'll send one to you, but if not then I'll not bother.<br>_It's not whether I still want OCs. In fact, I believe the OC submission slots will be open until I end this story. However, I'm not referencing that I _need_ any OCs. I'm just saying that, if you want to submit an OC, I'll receive it. There's one thing I'd like to clarify with the readers – whether your OCs appear in the story or not is a total mystery.

Before we move onto the story, I want to apologize for the fact that this chapter took much longer than it was supposed to. However, there was an exam, and the school was pounding us with unbelievable amounts of homework. Anyway, onto the story.

* * *

><p>Digimon Miracles<br>The Start of Miracles  
>Chapter 7: A Lot to Learn<p>

I stood in the middle of a clearing in a forest. The already-faint glow of the moonlight was blocked by the tall trees. Somehow, I managed to make figures through the darkness, and I sensed two digimon standing close by. One was by my side, standing in a fighting position – definitely Veemon – and the other was standing a few metres in front of me. I squinted my eyes and recognized with shock that it was Shoutmon. Seeing Shoutmon wasn't shocking; the shocking thing was that he held up his mike as though he was about to attack. _Me_.

"Rock Soul!" he yelled, and his palm erupted into flames. Call me crazy, but the flames seemed to burn brighter and wilder than when he was in his upgraded cyborg mode.

The ball of flames lit up the area, giving me a better visual of my surroundings which didn't look good. The grass wasn't a rich green in colour like most fields were. Instead, it was of a faded gray colour, like something had been burnt there a few days ago. The trees were of no exception. Every single tree in sight had burnt marks on it, and also scratch marks that were so deep they must've been made by butcher knives.

The worst thing on the scene, however, was Shoutmon. His body was tattered and bruised, like he'd survived through a dozen battles. It wasn't as bad as when he had been blown up, but it was still not a sight for sore eyes. His face was filled with anger and hatred (trust me, I know), but I had a strange feeling it was all directed towards me. His microphone was dented, and the middle part was bent about forty five degrees.

Shoutmon yelled in half-rage and half-agony before throwing the ball of fire at the two of us. Veemon jumped in front of me to block the hit. Naturally, I would've grabbed him out of the way – I prefer myself being injured than others, unless it's you-know-who – but instead, I didn't move. My body didn't budge no matter how much I willed it to. Veemon was thrown back by the force of the attack, and even then I didn't make an attempt to catch him. Instead, I did something I would never have done: I abandoned Veemon and jumped over him towards Shoutmon.

Despite our close range, Shoutmon's fireballs didn't seem to be able to put a scratch on me. Every single ignited ball of flames just either died out before they reached me, or didn't even find their target. I kneed Shoutmon in the snout with my left leg, before kicking him into a tree. Funny, was it just me or did all my attacks feel like they were drawn from my anger? Speaking of anger, why was I even angry in the first place? That's right, folks. I had no idea why we were fighting, why Shoutmon and I seemed like mortal (or digital) enemies, and why I cared not about Veemon.

Shoutmon crashed against the tree trunk with immense power, causing the entire tree to fall. It was lucky the other trees, though badly burnt and cut, were able to grasp the ground. Otherwise, it would be a totally similar replay to the domino game I had at the museum: one thing falling down after another. In a final attempt to injure me, Shoutmon threw his mike. I caught it in midair (didn't seem much of an attack) and ran to Shoutmon. I grabbed him, threw him up like a baseball, and batted him back into the clearing.

As Shoutmon neared Veemon, the latter sprung into the air. He came down fist-first, and punched Shoutmon downwards. I could see a crater form, and Veemon leapt into the air again. This time, he came down head-first like a super rocket-missile weapon. As his head connected with Shoutmon, a gust of wind emitted from the point of contact. Several twigs and fallen leaves were blown around, though I just (for some weird reason) stood there without possibly any feeling of regret or remorse at what I (or Veemon) had just done.

As I walked towards the metre-deep crater, I could clearly see Shoutmon's disintegrating body. What was worse was when I took the sharp end of Shoutmon's mike... and stabbed him with it.

"Agh!" I screamed, bolting awake. I saw up on my bed, sweat drowning my clothes. It was all just a dream; a bad nightmare and nothing more. I sighed in relief. I hadn't killed Shoutmon.

The little red digimon had left several hours ago, and nothing I said could convince him to change his mind about staying. As I saw him exit the open ten-feet-tall gates, I wondered what a digimon like him was going to do. I mean, he would definitely need some food, some drinks, and a place to crash. Where would a digimon get money to pay for those things? As far as I knew, not one store in town (or maybe even any other place in the world) had a sign hiring digimon for work.

It took me a minute after Shoutmon's red figure left that I realized I had left Selene fighting the DemiDevimon. Selene, though a digidestined as well, wouldn't be able to handle all that on her own, right? I thought she must've been struggling against those numbers. Worse still, she could've already been defeated and taken hostage... or lunch. However, my siblings returned home (this is _so_ not a good time) and Rinji forbade me from leaving the house as I had 'skipped school' again.

Just to make things worse, Yuki had brought over her group of girl friends. Mai ordered (it sounded more like a request, but after all these years, I knew it was an order) me to wait on Yuki and her gang while they watched TV. Using my amazing cooking abilities (I took up some side-classes to... I don't know,survive?), I rounded up enough ingredients to make a pizza – one of the finest ever made. My only regret – it was to be served to the mongrols that brought misery to people's lives. After their third helping, I was wondering how they stayed so slim.

Total all that unluckiness and you'll find only one word to describe how I was feeling: heartbroken.

"What's wrong, Hiroto?" DemiVeemon yawned. He sat up on his bed, stretching his short arms. "Is it morning and school time already?"

I ignored his question. "Do you think Shoutmon's okay, DemiVeemon?"

"Maybe," DemiVeemon replied bluntly without a single hint of worry in his voice. "Is it morning yet?"

I, once again, ignored his question. "But Shoutmon's all on his own. I mean, how will he survive? Digimon also need to eat, drink... you know, the basics?"

"Come on," DemiVeemon smiled. "You seriously think that being worried for Shoutmon is going to help? Now, is it morning already?"

I took a glance at the clock. "No, it's two a.m."

Veemon's eyes lit up. "Ooh! Goody!" He jumped out of bed and headed for the door.

"You know the toilet's the other way, right?" I asked.

"I don't need to go to the toilet," DemiVeemon answered, licking his lips. "I'm going to raid your refridgerator like I do every night at two."

"Hey, try and get some me some honey bars while you're down there, 'kay?" I asked as DemiVeemon headed out the door. I just heard a grunt of agreement before the door was closed shut.

My head slumped onto my soft, cushy, pillow, and I closed my eyes, trying to get a good night's sleep. If DemiVeemon came back with my honey bars while I dozing, he'd probably wake me up. If he fails to awake me after a few tries, he'll just eat them all, that is, if he hasn't already devoured them all on his way up. As my mind drifted off, I prayed that I wouldn't be haunted by anymore nightmares. I could've sworn I needed only one more second to fall asleep when the doorknob clicked open.

DemiVeemon walked in happily with a handful of biscuits in one hand, and two bars of honey biscuits in the other. He threw the honey bars onto my bed (if I _had_ been asleep, I wouldn't have noticed) and proceeded to his bed. The chocolate cookies he was holding broke off crumb by crumb, leaving a visible trail on the carpet, kinda' like Hansel and Grettel. As he jumped on his bed, I looked at him and saw that he was crunching on hald a dozen crackers that he had stuffed into his mouth.

I placed the treats DemIVeemon had gotten me on my bedside table and drifted off to sleep. As much as I would enjoy the delicious taste of the honey melting in my mouth, the crunchiness of the biscuit, the wonderful combination that was honey and biscuit... sorry, got carried away there. Anyway, as I was saying, as much as I like honey bars, I would much rather fall asleep now. I couldn't fall asleep in my class without a trip to the only being worse than the principal: Rinji Kiyoshi.

When I awoke the next day, I felt surprisingly well despite the fact that I had less than five hours of beauty (vomit) sleep. I hadn't been disturbed by anymore nightmares, either. I grabbed my schoolbag, shoved a sleeping DemiVeemon in it, and headed for the door. At the moment, my mind was racing with way too many questions for me to remember one important little detail – I was really hungry. In retrospect, I should've brought those honey bars along with me before I left the room, or better yet eaten them last night.

I stopped by at a trustworthy grocery store and bought three packets filled with sandwiches. Yeah, most of the edible things that these stores sell are sandwiches. Even then, you have to be careful you don't choose the expired ones, as there are some irritating owners who only care about profit and forget about the quality. One good time, Yuki, in a hurry, bought spoilt bread, and had indigestion for the rest of the day. Did I mention diarrhea as well? Aah, good times, good times.

Reaching school was easy enough, but getting to class wasn't. There were students busting here and there outside the classroom, most of them crowded around the notice board. I couldn't exactly see what the fuss was all about as the entire board was blocked from my view, so I continued to my classroom (heck, the corridor was so tightly-packed I was lucky to have squeezed through). All I knew was that there was supposed to be a transfer student coming to our class, and I hoped with all my might that he or she wouldn't be as snuck up and snotty as Seishirou.

As I placed my bag down, I half-hoped that it would be Selene. She didn't exactly say _where_ she was studying, but given her performance I was ready to believe she'd aced the Saikou exams. Oh my gosh, I had totally forgotten about Selene after last night. In under half a minute, a bead of sweat was already trickling down my forehead as I deduced the possibilities that could've occurred to Selene. It was pretty hard to think though, with more than half the class wondering what they could say to flirt with the new student.

"Hey, Hiroto," Lance greeted as he walked into the room. "Sorry about dumping you yesterday."

"Nah, that's fine," I shot him a friendly smile. "Got attacked by a swarm of bats, but I'll be fine."

"Well, seeing as you're here in one piece I'll say you got away with that just fine," Lance chuckled. If only he knew about Selene. "Anyway, I'm going to go talk to Seishirou for a moment. He's got immense jokes and knowledge about... stuff."

"Well, see ya'," I waved.

Turning around, I saw that Seishirou was fitting in quite well. _Too_ well. Crowded around his table were boys and girls (some even from other grades) who were busy machine-gunning him with questions. His expression wasn't much different than when I saw him yesterday – cold and almost emotionless – but I could tell they were filled with more warmth than before. He seemed bored and annoyed at the random questions shoved into his face, but he answered them nonetheless to fit in. He looked as if he needed to know who he could trust and who he couldn't. I know how that felt. I'd experienced it before.

The bell rang for the start of the school day, and the students groaned as they unwillingly walked back to their seats (or classes). I chuckled softly, but then immediately slapped myself. Mentally, of course. Slapping myself in public would make me look like a total nut job. If people wanted to be his fans- I mean, _friends_, who was I to stop them? Maybe I could stick to the group that wasn't attracted to him like magnets, though there was almost none of that left.

Thursdays, as usual, started with Arts class. This teacher is one of the ones whom I respect in this school. He's not one of the 'tyrants' that I told you about. He doesn't shout, scold, aimlessly lecture, or punish us, and that's when he's in a foul mood. When he's feeling above the weather, he can have the whole class laughing in under five minutes. Of course, everyone zips up when the discipline teacher comes to investigate. Don't worry, we students are very creative. We even said someone set off laughing gas and the discipline teacher bought it.

Next up was Mathematics, which was as boring as it always was. The teacher kept rambling on and on about angles, the way every exterior angle added up to be three sixty degrees, and how to calculate the total angles in a certain polygon. Just between us, this is real torture. I guess the teacher has a bone to pick with us as we made fun of her in previous years, and was using the art of boredom to slowly take us students down one by one. Except for Seishirou, who was getting top attention in class. Any easy questions were directed at him, and the harder ones were aimed at 'the guilty ones'.

What really surprised me was what – or _who_ – came in during Science. The teacher was holding onto a number of documents as she walked in and was signing them all as she trotted to her seat. I initially assumed we had to perform lab experiments in the class, which must've been of truly high difficulty considering the thickness of the pile of documents the teacher was going through (four inches or recycled paper!). However, the lack of lab equipments shut that accusation down.

As it appears, she was signing on several documents regarding the new transfer student. Oh, did I forget to mention? Should someone transfer to Saikou and intend to get studying immediately, a lot of paperwork had to be issued and done. No, this isn't the type of work done by the class teacher. Instead, any teacher wanting to take up the job would be given it. As payment, they'd get a small raise in salary. Despite that fact, remind me, if I ever apply as a teacher for Saikou (which doesn't seem likely for a billion years), _not_ to accept any of that complex documenting work.

Well, let's just stray away from the topic regarding how Saikou operates and concentrate on the new arrival, okay? As she (yes, it's a she, making all the dreamy-eyed girls in this class sigh in despair and boo) walked into the class, my heart almost skipped a beat. Walking into the classroom ten minutes into the Science lesson was someone I would never have expected to set foot in Saikou: Selene. She walked towards the empty table to my right, waving at the boys at the back who were drooling all over their tables and books. Talk about gross. I meant the boys, not Selene.

"So, how'd things go with Shoutmon?" she asked right after she took her seat.

"Well, he's okay..." I slowly explained. "But I couldn't get him to stay."

"You managed to fix him? I mean, _heal_ him? Other than one kid I was introduced to, no digidestined in history has ever been able to accomplish that before!" Selene exclaimed in a whisper, her eyes beaming with excitement. "You must be a special kid if you're able to do that. Not even my brother, who's known digimon for quite a while, has any idea how to do that."

"Hey, you said there was already someone who did that," I reasoned. "That means it's not all that special what I did."

"Actually, he's the digidestined of Healing, so... yeah, you get the point," Selene smiled sheepishly.

I was going to leave out the part about the darkness stringing out from my fingers, though I couldn't seem to keep myself from telling her that. I mean, taking credit for something I had no idea how I did was kinda' immature, right? "Look, darkness just kind of... emitted from my fingers, and as soon as it touched Shoutmon, he began to heal."

Selene's eyes widened in amazement. Either she seldom heard news like this, or her acting was impressively good. "I had no idea digidestined could attempt that, let alone do that. Maybe you're a special kind... like the digidestined of Darkness?"

"Is there even such a thing?"

"No, not that I know of..." Selene's voice trailed off.

"So you said there _might_-" I stressed the word 'might', "-be a a digidestined of Darkness, but even if I was one, is that a good thing?"

"Well, if you control your powers well and not succumb to some dark tempting powers, then yeah, I guess that'll be a good thing. However, if you grow too greedy with power, you could easily get killed trying to obtain more. Rest assured, I'll be sure to stop you if you ever turn on us."

Selene opened her mouth to continue her rambling, but I stopped her in time. "Us? You mean there's more for me to handle if I defect?" My face paled as I realized what I had just said. Hurriedly, I changed my question. "I mean, more good guys?"

"Well, everytime new digidestined are chosen-"

"What do you mean, 'chosen'?"

"Every few years, the Digimon Sovereigns – they're the rulers of the digital world – call upon a number of kids to help if the digital world is in a disaster. Whenever a new set of digidestined are chosen, we refer to them as a new 'generation' of digidestined. Get it?"

"So... if you had to guess, we're in generation what?" Considering the few decades that computers have been around, there have got to be like, sixteen to thirty generations, right? Instead, Selene's answer surprised me.

"I think we're the third generation..." she murmured, looking off into the distance. "At least that's what my brother tells me."

"So how many of us 'chosen' kids are there?"

"Dunno'," came the answer in a bored tone. "The Sovereigns are free to choose how many digidestined they want to bring into the digital world."

"Why not choose an entire continent?" Hey, that was a fair question for a newbie like me. "I mean, the more people join-"

"You have to consider the fact that the Sovereigns have limited power to send their distress calls to us here in the human world, since the barrier keeping the two worlds separate is quite strong. They also have to see how many..." Selene struggled to find the right word. "... 'disposable' digimon there are for us digidestined."

"If the Sovereigns are the rulers of the digital world, shouldn't they be like, ultra-powerful or something? Why would they need us digidestined's help?"

"The Sovereigns might be powerful, but there are other digimon who are strong enough to oppose them. This is just a rumour so far, but I heard that one of the four Sovereigns – Azulongmon – was trapped under a rock of some sort by the Dark Masters until a while ago. The digidestined generation before us freed them."

"I doubt we'll ever get more famous than _that_," I sighed. I received a nod from Selene, who was also sighing in agreement.

"Still, we can hope, right?"

"So..." I racked my mind, trying to think up a new topic. "... you said you have a brother who's a digidestined," I said, trying to make conversation. "What's he like?"

"I'm not sure," she groaned. "He's only been back in Tokyo for like, two months. Before that, he was lounging around in Odaiba, hitting on girls."

"Not really much of a role model, eh?" I joked, and lucky for me she didn't take it seriously.

"No, no he isn't," Selene replied blankly. "Even if he's always in flirting mode, I have to admit he's a great digidestined. I really look up to and respect him."

"Wish I could say the same for myself," I laughed. "If my brother and sisters found out anything about me, the first thing that comes to their minds will be blackmailing. Or threatening. Or teasing. Or-"

"I get the point," Selene interrupted. "If I ever go to your house, we should really pull a prank-"

"Way ahead of ya'," I grinned. "So, how'd you even get away from the DemiDevimon swarm?"

"I beat them all," she boasted. Wow, not that I didn't believe her, but I didn't.

"How? There was an entire swarm of them!"

"I still have a few tricks up my sleeves." Selene playfully tugged on the sleeves of her mini-jacket. "Maybe sometime soon, I can show it to you, though how you haven't figured it out yet is a mystery to me."

I replied, "What can I say? I'm special that way," receiving a playful punch from Selene.

I breezed through the rest of Science period chatting with Selene. I think it's no exaggeration when I say I learnt nothing from this lesson, though I doubt there'd be anything important even if I _had_ payed attention. A couple of times, students at the back would murmur some words, and I had a nervous feeling it was directed towards Selene and I, who were chatting away like old buds. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied several students pointing fingers at the two of us as well, which cringed me up for a sec.

After Science came recess. My friends had already bolted out the door, following Seishirou's habit of leaving quickly, before I had finished putting half my books away. I placed my mini-pizza onto the round table, looking dejectedly at where I once sat. Selene then materialized out of nowhere and dropped onto the seat next to me, placing her plate of spaghetti on the table. We continued our chatting/debating/arguing after that, but mostly chatting. We shared information on how to prank others without being caught (turns out, she also pranks her brother most of the time), all that junk.

Mathematics came after recess, and luckily the teacher had something new to do instead of rant on and on about past-year arithmetics. After settling her papers safely onto the teacher's desk, she held up a form and briefly explained about an expedition, before sticking it onto the notice board outside with thumbtacks. Afterwards, she walked back to her seat, smirking, and I realized why. Not a second later, the entire class raced outside, trying to see what it was all about.

Selene and I were smarter. We simply asked the teacher for extra forms, and she happily gave us two sheets of paper filled with detailed information about the trip. I don't know why she wasn't reluctant to hand it out to us (she usually doesn't favour me that much) but I couldn't complain about her cooperation. I silently read the five-page-long entry form while most of the class pushed around for a better view outside.

The expedition was to be in two weeks time. Everyone was to assemble outside a certain jungle where treasure is rumoured to be buried. Schools from around Japan are taking part in this event, so there was a high chance we'd be paired up with students from other schools. At least, this way, we would be able to expand our ring of friends rather than being discriminative about others. Wow, I'm starting to talk like my kindergarten Japanese teacher... _not_ a good sign.

After that, we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Yes, it was free period, and I had a lot of things to do in mind. Said things, however, required my friends' assistances, and sadly they were too busy mixing around with Seishirou to worry about what I was doing. What happened to Lance's claim that 'it's just for a while'? This 'a while' seemed like a pretty long time, and, as you all might've already guessed, I don't do _patient_. At least this proves I'm not the digidestined of Patience, I guess.

Selene was busy during free period, meeting up with the principal and discipline teacher for her individual orientation. I guessed the principal was going to school her on how things work around Saikou, whereas the discipline teacher would get her up to speed about the school rules. For some reason, Saikou teachers found the need to stress out every single detail, even if it could be easily obtained by, say, reading the notice board?

To put it briefly, I was alone during free period. I silently cursed myself (without foul language) for completing all my assignments and homework before free period, as I was boring myself to death. The only thing keeping me anchored to the world was the need to kick DemiVeemon to make sure he stayed silent whenever he moved about inside the bag.

Suddenly, a weird sensation woke me. I felt anticipation building up in my chest, and I looked around in panic. I felt this twice before, and I realized with a start that this was how I always felt when a digimon was close by. Judging by how nervous I felt, and how nervous I was getting, I'd say it was a strong digimon.

I followed my instincts (it's easier said than done) to the school soccer field, where the grass looked fresh, green, and neatly trimmed. There wasn't a digimon in sight, but if there was one, it wasn't a very big one. Maybe this digimon was supposed to enter our bodies, take out our immune system, and cause us to fall sick or something. Or it probably had feathery-like hands which it could use to unsuspectingly tickle us to our deaths. Just trying to be helpful.

I opened my bag and DemiVeemon jumped out with something in his mouth. I sighed as I realized it was part of my Japanese assignment. Oh great. I had just complained about not having any work to do, and DemiVeemon had just given me another six hours of research. I have to be careful what I wished for.

"Any idea what digimon we're supposed to be looking for?" I asked, trying to spot the miniscule digimon.

"Based on what I know, it's supposed to be big," DemiVeemon blankly said as he tried chewing on another sheet of my assignment. I just let him do it, as the entire thing was useless without one part. And _no_, I cannot simply just rewrite the part DemiVeemon chewed off. Sad, huh?

"Don't you think it could be a powerful _small_ digimon? I mean, I can't see hide nor hair of a digimon."

"Wait for it..." DemiVeemon turned his head towards the centre of the soccer field. He grinned like we were getting to the best part. "Wait for it..."

The ground then began to rumble. I was worried there was going to be an earthquake, but I guess this was worse. Oh sure, what was worse than a city-destroying life-taking magnitude? Well, a digimon that could _make_ a city-destroying life-taking magnitude, and to my horror it was coming right from the center of the soccer field.

Somewhere at the middle of the soccer, field, the air swirled and swivelled in the sky like a whirpool. The air flushed and gushed (how the heck was _wind_ making _water_ sounds?) as it formed into a wind-pool. Not a second later, it opened up into a blackhole sort of thing. It was all digital-ish inside, with blocks of digital spaces floating around, so I guessed it was the gate between the real world and the digital world. What shocked me off my feet (I jumped back a good two metres, mind you) was the digimon that emerged from the portal right as it closed.

The dinosaur that stomped its way out was as big as a tyrannosaurus rex. There was so much resemblance I almost shivered in fright at the very presence of it, though I'm just making assumptions based on some of the crazy movies I watched on television. Anyway, it was totally red in colour, except for its underside, which was white in colour. Its sharp claws were also pure white, stained with some dirt. It's back was lined with green scales, I think.

The dinosaur digimon roared with all its might, and the very ground shook under my feet. A part of me was worried the ground would split into two and swallow me up whole. Another part of me wondered whether anyone else had heard that tremendously loud roar, but I decided against that possibility. Even if anyone _had_ heard it, what could they do? I doubt anyone in this school has the guts or skills to go toe-to-toe with this dinosaur digimon in a fight.

"Wow! Tyrannomon!" DemiVeemon exclaimed as he digivolved. "I heard that the species is getting extinct!"

"Aren't digimon, like, reborn everytime they're defeated?"

"Sure they are."

"Then why'd you..."

"For fun."

I slapped my forehead in disbelief. Veemon can just be so... blank at some times. Turning my attention back to the dinosaur, Tyrannomon was walking towards one end of the large soccer field. I watched in utter shock as he effortlessly crushed a goalpost under his foot. He looked around, trying to spy his prey, and that's when he laid eyes on me. Our eyes met, and something passed between us. I had no idea what it was, but I'm sure it wasn't anything close to 'Hi, let's sit down and have tea!', as that would've been totally absurd.

With another horrifying roar, the gigantic dinosaur came charging towards me. I maybe a kid who managed to hold my own against a limited list of digimon so far, but I truly doubted I'd be able to hold my own against a small dinosaur, let alone a T-rex. A T-rex, for crying out loud! I took a few steps backwards, whilst Veemon got into a fighting stance. At the last second, however, I found that we both agreed it was best to run when Tyrannomon spewed fire at us.

As I doubled my speed, I tripped over some stupid pebbles and fell over, rolling to a half. I lay spread out on the ground as I withstood the fading pain. I almost couldn't feel my right shoulder, waist, and left leg. Lifting my head, I saw Tyrannomon approaching me and, as much as I wished to get up and run, my condition forbade me from that option. Instead, I watched on as Tyrannomon opened his mouth filled with blazing fire.

"Woohoo!" I heard, and looked even higher in time to see Veemon rocketting down on Tyrannomon. How he got to such a height without my help will be beyond me, but for now I was just glad he was here.

Veemon assaulted Tyrannomon on the head, causing a massive explosion upon impact. I was sure the momentum of Veemon's fall would be enough to injure Tyrannomon or, with luck, knock him out. The billowing smoke was really convincing, too. Unfortunately, I thought too soon. As the smoke cleared up, I saw a small blue figure doing a silly-looking dance upon Tyrannomon's snout. Yes, the small figure was Veemon, holding his forehead in pain (this is a first). On the other hand, Tyrannomon didn't even seem the least fazed.

The pain had subisded by now, but my body still ached as I struggled to get up. With enough effort, I found myself able to walk fine. However, Tyrannomon flung Veemon off his snout, sending the blue digimon towards me. I opened out my hands to catch him, and the two of us were thrown back a couple of metres. Tyrannomon swung his tail, crushing a car (I think it was the principal's) and then ignited a car. Before the plate number was engulfed by flames, I made out the inscriptions of the discipline teacher's car.

"You okay, Veemon?" I asked, rubbing the sore back of my head.

"Yeah, you?" Veemon asked. I nodded.

"Then let's get this big baby!" Veemon yelled. I think he mostly meant to taunt Tyrannomon, but this gave me a small ounce of courage.

Veemon dashed ahead, going towards Tyrannomon at full speed. With a flick of his tail, Tyrannomon sent Veemon flying, but I managed to catch him by the arms just in time. Following two spins, I threw Veemon high into the sky. Let's see how his rocket technique would work out now. As Veemon plummetted down onto Tyrannomon, the latter looked on. Maybe he doubted he'd be damaged by the attack. Big mistake. This time, Veemon knocked Tyrannomon off balance, sending him falling backwards onto his bottom.

"Good job, Veemon!" I yelled.

Veemon started to do a victory dance like an immature kid. I had just enough time to warn him of Tyrannomon's anger before the spot he was standing on was squashed, crushed, incinerated, and squashed again. Luckily, Veemon got my message and had withdrawn before he was barbequed. He ran back as Tyrannomon fired a ball of flames our way. Veemon ducked and was able to evade it, but I couldn't say the same for me. I was forced to roll aside to avoid being burnt to a crisp, as even at two metre's distance I could feel the intense heat radiating from the fireball.

I ran towards Tyrannomon, as I formulated a plan. Veemon, in the meantime, kept Tyrannomon busy with his flurry of punches and kicks. Tyrannomon tried stepping on Veemon to no avail. I'm proud to say I taught Veemon all those evading skills. Not directly, but I'm sure he learnt it from me running away all the time. I saw Tyrannomon try swiping at Veemon, before attempting to blast him to bits. However, Tyrannomon's tail remained behind him at all times, even when Veemon ran to his back. For the record, Tyrannomon farted as Veemon ran to his behind.

Seeing an opportunity, I grabbed onto Tyrannomon's tail and started making my way up. Tyrannomon's constantly moving body was hard to manouver, I'll admit that, but the spikes on his back made things way easier. By holding onto one, I was able to stabilize myself before moving onto another. Unknowingly, I had already reached his mid-back, and he showed no sign of realizing I was climbing up Mount Tyrannomon.

I reached Red T-Rex's Peak (a.k.a. Tyrannomon's head) as he tried roasting Veemon. The little guy rolled and dodged so well I was considering taking escaping lessons from him. Back to my plan, I ran in front of his right eye and kicked with all my might. The following roar was deafening, but this could be because I was so close to his face. He roared yet again, and this time it was so loud it could've split the Earth in half.

He shook hard and I found myself in danger of falling down more than two storeys. Veemon came to my rescue by distracting Tyrannomon. Not the 'punch and kick' distraction but the 'face-making and name-calling' distraction. This gave me enough time to retreat to Tyrannomon's neck to grab onto a sturdy-looking spike. Oh, by the way, Veemon said something in digimon language (I'm assuming it's that, since I've never heard it in my life) which I somehow knew to translate into 'Can I hire you as a cook for my upcoming barbeque?' or something close.

I thought we had this under control, until Tyrannomon swiped me off of him with his tail. He also used his tail to slam Veemon away while Veemon was in the middle of giving him the raspberry. Note, Tyrannomon's most lethal weapon is his tail, and the easiest way to defeat him would be to cut it off. Yeah, okay, where are we going to get a large enough knife? Then again, in my defence, I said the _easiest_ way, not themost reasonable way.

Tyrannomon blew flames, and we hid behind a car. Stupid mistake, as the car exploded. How idiotic can I be, forgetting about the fuel tanks? I think Yuki would've been in a worthy position to call me names right now, as much as I hate to admit it. Veemon and I were blown away by the explosion, and I landed on my back. Veemon landed on face-first, and spat out a few pebbles as he sat up. Me? I rubbed my back in pain.

"Oh, crap," I said as Tyrannomon approached us _again_.

"I'm too cute to die..." Veemon replied. "I still haven't raided Hiroto's fridge empty yet..."

"Seriously, you have to think about that _now_?" I asked.

As Tyrannomon opened his mouth, a voice screamed out. "Stop!" I was washed with happiness as I realized whose voice it was.

Selene came running from behind Tyrannomon, Dorumon hot on her heels. A million things were going on in my mind right now. For example, what technique or strategy would Selene use to defeat Tyrannomon? Or, how many more times would I have to be saved by her before I am capable of taking care of myself? I don't know why I was thinking this as well, but it was the closest thing to my condition that I could think of: hungry. In accordance, Veemon's stomach growled.

"Dorumon, digivolve!" Selene called out, taking a small device from her backpack. It was a golden irregular hexagon that fitted perfectly into her palm. There was a big translucent white-ish (or you could call it silver) crystal embedded in the center. I gasped as I realized Seishirou had exactly the same thing fastened onto his belt, only with the addition of the wings.

The silver crystal in the middle burst out with overwhelming light. I had to shield my eyes with my hands to avoid being blinded by it. Despite its brightness, it didn't seem to affect Selene, who looked on as usual. Then, I remembered something she had said. _"Maybe you're a special kind... like the digidestined of Darkness?" _I also remembered her doubting the existence of such a digidestined, but who else could explain why I was affected by the light and Selene wasn't? Oh, and on a side note, Veemon was also _un_affected by the light.

"Dorumon, digivolve to..." Dorumon pointlessly announced.

Squinting my eyes to focus on the scene, I saw Dorumon glowing white with light as well. The light engulfed him, until I couldn't make out any of Dorumon's distinctive figures except for the outline of his body. Then, Dorumon's form started to change in shape and size, growing with every passing second. When the light died down, the Dorumon I once knew was either absent from the scene, or had undergone a growth spurt in under ten seconds.

This new digimon was of a darker shade of purple. The only exceptions were the snout, neck, wings, underside, paws, feet, and tail tip, which were of a bright white. Is it just me, or do purple and white contrast each other very well? His fur was shaggy and zig-zagged. His two ears stuck out straight and sharp like javelin heads. This digimon had reddish purple claws shaped like hooks. The red crystal was the only resemblance he bore to Dorumon. Oh, did mention Dorumon was also, now, around ten feet tall?

"Dorugamon!" the creature bellowed with might. His voice sounded deeper and gruffer than before, too, kind of like the way Veemon's voice grows all high-pitched and cute when he's DemiVeemon.

"Dorugamon, finish off that Tyrannomon!" Selene commanded.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Dorugamon grinned, before taking off towards the tyrannosaurus rex. He skilfully flew to the left and right to avoid incoming fireballs.

He slashed and cut Tyrannomon, making several marks with ease. Dorugamon circled around the T-rex, staying out of view. I could clearly see the look of confusion upon Tyrannomon's face as he tried to find Dorugamon. No matter how many times Tyrannomon turned around, he almost never saw Dorugamon. Dorugamon even led Tyrannomon on a small trip by wrapping his tail around the T-rex's paw and dragging him in a certain direction. Tyrannomon stepped on three more cars before Dougamon let go.

"Power Metal!" Dorugamon cried out, and shot five metal cannonballs from his mouth.

All five of them found their targets and made quick work of the T-rex. The first one knocked Tyrannomon in the stomach, forcing him back a few metres. The second one hit his shoulder, causing him to roar in pain, the third one got him square in the stomach again, earning another loud roar. The fourth his Tyrannomon's snout. The dinosaur grunted in pain as he was pushed back another few metres. The final one put an end to the catastrophe, turning Tyrannomon to data. The swirling data pieces then floated off towards the digital world.

"That was awesome!" I stood up, forgetting the pain that I must've been feeling. "How'd you do that?"

"Yeah! I wanna' be able to do that, too!" Veemon said, jumping up.

"What? You can't do that?" Selene exclaimed. Dorugamon landed behind her and degenerated.

"No, I can't," I replied.

"Me neither," Veemon added in.

"I think she was talking to me," I said, turning to face Veemon.

"No, she was talking to me," he argued.

"Umm... Hiroto?" she tapped my shoulder. "If you can't do it... then does that mean you still don't have a digivice?"

"A digi-what?" I repeated. Veemon also looked confused, so there was no reason for blaming my obliviousness on him.

"A digivice. It's a digital device which every single digidestined gets. Most digidestined get their digivices when they first meet their digimon, but others only get theirs after a while," Selene explained. "Why, don't you have one?"

I shook my head.

"Some don't even get their digivices," Dorumon added. "But don't worry, the ratio of digidestined with digivices to those without digivices is like, a million to one."

"Okay, enough with the digivice explanations," Veemon interrupted impatiently. "How'd you do that super digivolve thing?"

"Oh, anyone with a digivice can do that," Selene laughed mildly. She took out hers and gently touched the silver crystal. "It just takes a lot of focus and a lot of concentration, not to mention a little practice."

I either laughed a little, or I made a funny realistic face, as Selene broke into a grin. It felt awkward being stared at like this, but I shook the feeling away. All I could think of right now was how I was going to explain all this damage to the principal. Maybe I should hire a lawyer to fight for me in court before the schoolboard sued me for annihilating their cars. Even if my parents would be more than happy to pay up for this, I didn't want to continuously burden them, though I always unwillingly do.

"What? What's so funny?" I asked as Selene continued giving me that look. "Do I have something on my face?"

She ignored my question as Dorumon degenerated, instead, saying, "Let's just head back."

"Right... everyone will be wondering where you went." I took a degenerated Veemon and began stuffing him into my bag, which I found much more difficult than usual.

"Don't you mean 'where _you_ went'?" Selene drew a smile. "Don't forget, I'm supposed to be at the principal's office." Selene placed Dorimon into her bag, and she was having less trouble than I was. In fact, by the time DemiVeemon was halfway in my bag, Selene had already zipped hers.

"Well, at least the principal will be looking for you." I zipped up my bag, earning a small 'Ouch!' (okay, maybe a big one) from DemiVeemon. Oops, maybe I accidentally zipped his skin.

"Nah, I told him I had to go use the toilet," Selene grinned.

"For over twenty minutes? Don't kid around," I replied as we headed back.

I snuck a glance over my shoulder. The soccer field had some large dinosaur footprints in them, and one goalpost was crushed beyond repair. The carpark was in an even worse condition. Several of the cars had been destroyed. Some of them had been stepped on and crushed, whereas the others had simply exploded into pieces. Don't worry, the flames have died down.

I sighed, smiling, wondering how my interest in digivolution had been so easily shut down by Selene's words alone.

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading. I hope you all enjoyed it. Nothing major to report about in this chapter, except for the fact that Selene is quite knowledgeable in the field of digidestined. This is because her older brother is the present leader of the current digidestined. Oops, gave something away, huh? Well, you'll all know sooner of later, so I guess it's not a total loss.<p>

Please read and review!


	8. Dolls of Doom and Fangs of Fury

Tendou Souji  
><em>Hmm..., I kinda wanted Seishirou to be unique but I suppose that the fact that his TransVice has 'wings' is good enough.<br>I see Seishirou is getting a little annoyed with his classmates though it is kinda my fault for making his emotions lean towards the emotionless side.  
>Kinda sad to see that the first digivolution honour goes to Dorumon and not Dracomon but congrats nonetheless.<br>More on the TransVice mechanics, for Seishirou anyway. Instead of light bursting from the crystal, it shoots out of the wings in a steady stream and creates a mini-vortex in the sky. A bullet of light is then fired from the vortex and strikes the ground. The dust then settles down to reveal Dracomon, Coredramon or Wingdramon in a crouching position. For the mega form, Seishirou removes the blue crystal and tosses into into the sky. With a snap of his fingers, the crystal shatters and the energy flows into the clouds. A magical crest suddenly appears and Slayerdramon emerges through it in all his glory.  
>Here's an idea if you're still planning on making Seishirou save Hiroto from Monochromon. While Hiroto and Veemon(after fighting the Monochromon) are staring down the Digimon, they suddenly felt a foreign presence and turned their attention to the right, catching sight of Seishirou almost immediately. The enigma gazed at the duo before looking at Monochromon. He then fully turns his body towards Hiroto and Veemon and silently reveals his unique TransVice. Tracing his fingers over the crystal, the 'wings' do their thing and Coredramon appears in the manner mentioned above.<br>TransVice mechanics aside, this was a great chapter. Veemon really needs to differentiate the moments where he should be playful and the moments where he should be serious.  
>I think you should give different crystals to the Digidestined. Since Seishirou already has a blue crystal, why don't you change the colour of Selene's crystal?<br>Update soon.  
>~Tendou Souji~<br>_Don't worry. Seishirou's TransVice's uniqueness doesn't end at just the wings part. You should be able to figure it out after reading this chapter.  
>Thanks for the extra information about Seishirou's TransVice. However, I still have one question regarding Dracomon's digivolution forms. Let's say Seishirou already summoned Wingdramon. Then, when the protagonists are losing the battle, Wingdramon digivolves to Slayerdramon. Do you want any animation to go along with this event, or just the ordinary hold-up-digivice-and-a-bright-light-occurs scene?<br>I'll take your idea of the meeting into consideration. Oh, and this time I'll clarify whether Seishirou knows or doesn't know about Hiroto's digidestined-hood.  
>About Veemon's immaturity, it kinda' comes along with being the best fighter from where you come from. Veemon is, from where he comes from, the strongest rookie digimon fighter around. Therefore, it explains his immaturity.<br>I agree it's quite cheating to steal everything from Seishirou, so I've already altered Selene's crystal colour. For your information, it's silver. :)

Super g  
><em>no problem, in fact i think that you shouldd give away, loads of more stuff.<br>I don't care that the chapter was late, we know that real life gets in the way. Just as long as you update._  
>If I give away too much stuff, I'm worried everyone will stop reading as they already know what's gonna' happen next. :)<br>You might not care if the chapter's late, but others might. Still, thanks.

Phantomgirl96  
><em>Ahh. Digimon and food. The two best things in life. XD<br>__When is the next OC joining the group? :D  
><em>So true, so true. The three best things in life – digimon, food, and computers!  
>The next OC is joining us... oh, in this chapter. Enjoy! :D<p>

NovelistOfTheSky  
><em>Really good chapter, it's always a pleasure to read your story, especially the character interaction and the battles.<br>Ooooh I like the sound of that for Will :P Well, I'm sure it'll be good so I look forward to finding out what it is.  
>Keep up the good work.<br>_Thanks.  
>Even though Will will be revealed soon, you won't find out what 'it' is until a few chapters later. However, I wonder, maybe you can guess what 'it' is before it's shown?<br>Once again, thanks.

Master yo  
><em>Awesome work<br>_Thanks.

RazenX  
><em>Good chapter. It was nice to see Hiroto get beat by a digimon, since in the 1st story he might have won against the Tyrannomon. Seeing Selene in action and in the mentor role helps. Interesting take on the digivices, should be interesting to see what comes next-X<em>  
>Like I said, one of the reasons I'm rewriting this is to make Hiroto much more weaker, or less godlike. Selene is going to be more constantly appearing in battles now, and will be in the mentorpartial-leader role until the second arc, when her 'brother' will take over. About the digivices, full credit goes to Tendou Souji.

I can't express how I sorry I am that this chapter came so late. I'm sure you're all eager to read what happens next. But as usual, life's been keeping me very busy. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, especially you, NovelistOfTheSky, as this chapter's introducing your OC. Oh, and I also apologize for the possible lameness of the chapter title. I've been watching Kung Fu Panda lately.

* * *

><p>Digimon Miracles<br>The Start of Miracles  
>Chapter 8: Dolls of Doom and Fangs of Fury<p>

To put it frank, the rest of the day went well. Despite my injuries with the car explosion, I wasn't feeling a thing. I mean, I received wounds from the car explosion – just minor cuts and scratches, nothing major – but they were all already healing up. Some of the smaller cuts had already turned into scars. You can say I was amazed, but anyone who say me now wouldn't have been disappointed either.

However, not everything was perfect. Seishirou and my friends were still chit-chatting like good old buddies. No one would've guessed they'd just met yesterday. No, I did _not_ eavesdrop on their conversation. They were just talking loudly. Seishirou seemed to have limitless amounts of jokes hidden up his sleeves that he was ready to share with everyone, and he wasn't being selfish about it. He seemed to ease up a little compared to when he first arrived. I remember being in the same situation – scared and cautios, before opening up – when I first enrolled.

Selene did help reduce the tenseness by a bit. We talked about way too many things in way too little time. She told me about her chat with the principal, how honoured he was that she was at Saikou, bla bla bla. I don't know why he always repeats his speeches whenever a student transfers here. She also told me she joined the tennis club. Being in the soccer club, I was mildly dejected. Then again, I couldn't imagine her playing soccer as well as Minnie or Yuna. Plus, she _did_ win quite a number of gold medals in tennis, so it was fitting she joined that sport.

Selene also explained to me about the digivice, dubbed the TransVice, and it's functions. As she explained, I noticed her stealing glances at Seishirou, like he was probably overhearing. Apparently, holding up the digivice and pointing it at your digimon partner would allow your partner to digivolve into a more superior form. However, the TransVice only works for one individual, so I couldn't borrow it. Pity... I was curious as to what digimon Veemon would digivolve into. Maybe a giant dragon, a boxing champion, a hard-headed monster... or an even bigger glutton than he already was.

Other than that, it didn't seem to do anything else. She _did_ volunteer to ask her brother about how long it took for a digidestined to receive a digivice, so I was grateful. Not that I needed it or anything, no. I mean, Veemon and I are already a powerful combo without the need for anymore power. Thinking back on our fights, I knew we could handle ourselves well in a fight. But thinking back on today, I can personally tell you Veemon an I don't want any more power. We _needed_ more power. Desperately.

Oh, and Selene also earned my permanent respect when she indirectly hit Yuki in the face with a pie. She was walking towards the toilet, you see, and there was this kid holding a blueberry pie in his hands. I think you can guess what came next. Selene stumbled over something (I don't know if it was accidental) and pushed the kid. The pie flew out of his hands and splattered on Yuki's face. A loud scream ensued, along with a lot of name-calling from Yuki.

At home, Yuki accused me of being in leagues with her. Can't say she wasn't right. I was practically cheering her on as it happened. I simply waved her off and headed to my room. When she still pestered me and refused to leave me alone, I played a game of stinky-laundry dodgeball with her. Childish, I know, but it's way more effective than it sounds.

During dinner, Yuki complained to our brother and sister. The result? A tiring thirty minutes of being yelled at and lectured by Mai. Oh, Rinji also requested me to go to my room. It sounded somewhat like an order, though, and it went something like this: _'GO TO YOUR ROOM!'_. I decided to hit the hay early as I knew I would not be getting dinner. As my head hit the pillow, I reminded DemiVeemon to raid a turkey for me when he raided the fridge that night. I later had a delicious feast in the middle of the night.

I went to school the next day. I was feeling under the weather with fever, but I forced myself out of bed. Other than some wild dogs, crazy pets, a snuck-up woman, busy traffic, occasional slippery puddles, and Veemon's constant struggling, I was fine. Or it _seemed_ fine. I couldn't shake off the feeling that I was being watched. I couldn't exterminate the caution I was taking, like I was about to be attacked at any minute.

As I neared the school gates, I saw Selene walking towards the gates from the opposite direction. She was looking down at the cemented floor and hadn't realized that she'd arrived at school until I tapped her lightly on the shoulder. One thing to report, though. Do not _ever_ mess with her. Selene must've taken judo classes, as she grabbed me by the arm, and if reflexes were any worse, I'd be pancaked on the ground by now. This surprise move didn't help my fever much. I should never have ingested that toxic turkey.

Classes weren't any better. During Geography, I almost fainted in class. While the teacher was busy scribbling stuff on the board, I suddenly felt dizzy. This was followed by an impressively splitting headache. My vision blackened, and I felt myself falling sideways. I woke up in time to avoid really falling off my chair. Some of the students at the back snickered. Maybe they thought I was bored to the verge of sleeping. Regarding the fall, I've calculated that there was a twenty-seven percent chance that I could've fallen and injured myself real bad.

"You feeling okay?" Selene asked.

"I'll be fine," I managed to say, placing a hand on my head. My brain ached even more at the mention of each word, so I made a mental note (it even hurts to remember stuff now) not to talk too much, which I usually do.

"You don't look fine."

"Way to state the obvious, Sherlock."

"I was just trying to be helpful," Selene retorted. "Is this because of my judo-throwing? Darn, I knew I should've refused my brother's offer to attend."

"Nah, it's not because of your judo-throwing." I tried to regain some control over my mind by shaking my head lightly, but that only resulted in extra pain. "Though I have to admit – nice moves."

"I hate it when people compliment me about judo. I totally _hate_ the sport!"

"Then quit."

"But my brother won't stop pestering my about it if I do, since he says he's always looking out for me and stuff."

"Then don't quit."

"But then I won't feel at peace-"

"Then quit!"

"However, my brother-"

"Then don't quit!"

"But-"

"For Pete's sake, I'm trying to rest here, 'kay?"

"Oh, sorry 'bout that. Forgot you're not feeling well today," Selene apologized. "Anyway, I asked m brother about the TransVice, and he... Well, he said that a digidestined usually takes up to a week or so after they meet their digimon partners before they receive their TransVices."

A week... I met Veemon on a Friday – _last_ Friday – and today was Friday. So my one week trial was already up. It was either I got my digivice today, or I didn't get it at all. With the luck I've been getting, it was probably the latter option. "And my week's almost up. Do you think you can ask your brother if there's another way a digidestined can get his or her digivice?"

By the next class, Mathematics, I was already feeling ready to call sick and meet a doctor. I wanted to split my head in half, take out my brain, give it a five-star massage treatment, and then place it back into my head. If I said I was experiencing a really painful headache, that would be an understatement. It wouldn't even come close to explaining how painful I felt. Imagine having a headache, then getting bonked on the head by a metal bat several times while standing under the scorching heat, and then multiply that pain by a hundred. Okay, maybe that's an _over_statement.

I decided to return home and get some rest. No doubt Yuki would find this suspicious and attempt to find out what I was up to, but I seriously didn't care. If I had to spend one more minute at school, my whole head would burst. I don't know why I suddenly feel like this, but I hope this feeling was temporary, since I didn't quite like the idea of never ever attending school again. Plus, at home, when I'm better, I can try some of those full-proof-brother-and-sister-pranks that Selene told me about.

Putting all that aside, I made my way to the principal's office. After thirty minfutes of tough explaining, I was sure the principal was ready to let me off. However, he still shook his head. That was it. I had to pull out my secret weapon. I pretended to get real sick, and threatened to puke in his room if he didn't let me go. He was reluctant at first, but he made up his mind when I pretended to almost-puke on his brand new shiny laptop.

As I walked home, I mentally told myself how stupid I was to eat a turkey that was probably spoilt. Then, I saw a store with an interesting sign in front of it. 'Herbal Tea – the best medicine for anything!' was written on it in bold and in yellow, which contrasted the red background.

I ventured into the tea shop, which looked a million years old. The tables were visibly covered by several layers of dust. At the corners of the shop, cobwebs hung. Even the cushioned chairs had holes in them, and they didn't look comfortable to sit on. There were, of course, wooden chairs to choose from. As soon as I moved – or _tried_ to move – one chair, I gave up on the idea. They were just way too unsafe to sit on. They creaked as soon as I touched them, so I got the impression they'd crumble if I moved them.

Then, written at the counter on a sign, was 'Take-outs here!', which seemed weird for a tea shop, let alone a _herbal_ tea shop. The guy at the counter was cheeky-looking, and he couldn't have been more than twenty-five years old. Anyway, he gave me the take-out order in a most awkward way. He poured the tea into a coca-cola bottle – the type they use at Kentucky Fried Chicken's – and handed it to me.

After witnessing the condition of the shop up close and personal, I was hesitant to drink it. But this had cost me a heft five hundred yen. That's around four bucks. Quite expensive for a small bottle of tea (weird). It could either fix my headache, or increase the pain tenfold. I left hastily, debating whether or not to drink the supposed-herbal tea.

Ten minutes later, I dropped the pain-is-increased-tenfold idea and took a few sips. I was actually initially worried about... you know, but I'd give the tea shop credit. My headache began fading. The quality and effectiveness of the tea really contradicted with the appearance of the shop. Maybe if the shopkeepers advertised their shop, they'd have customers swarming in. Maybe they could clean up their shop, too... if they even knew _how_ to. I doubt they even knew the meaning of 'clean'. For that matter, the cheeky kid didn't seem to be trustworthy even around a broomstick.

I was just outside the Kiyoshi mansion, sipping on my tea (weird way to put it), when I stopped. An anxious feeling washed over me, and anticipation built up in my chest. Even when I'd only experienced this a few times, I'd already recognized it. A digimon warning. There was a digimon in the vicinity. I looked at my surroundings, feeling more and more cautious. Either I was really losing it, or there were so many digimon my radar (a.k.a. my brain) was going nuts.

After a few minutes of searching, I deduced that the feeling was coming from an old mannequin shop, and I entered with reluctance. Call the mannequin shop what you will – rundown, abandoned, dusty, dirty – but it was still creepy. The mannequins were in good condition, and it was pitiful for them to be left on the shelves. Nothing seemed out of place. Everything was fine... Wait a second. Everything seemed _too_ fine. The last time I passed by, all the dolls were dusty, but now they were gleaming brightly. Previously, they were fallen, but now they were standing up... and looking straight at me.

Oh, darn it.

I turned to run, but the door slammed shut behind me. No matter how much I pulled on the doorknob, it didn't budge. Turning back to the dark part of the room, I saw several dots glow. Then, motors started up. I heard the clink-clank of metal against cement, and saw that about a dozen dwarf-like figures were making their way towards me. I stiffened at the sight, and was lucky enough to remember to bring DemiVeemon out.

The little guy didn't seem to keen on fighting at that moment, though. "Why do we _always_ get attacked?" DemiVeemon groaned, slapping his forehead as he digivolved.

"I ask myself that question all the time," I replied, taking a step backwards. The door wouldn't budge, so I was just buying myself time to think of a plan. Our only option at the moment was fight and stand our ground, but twelve against two... I didn't like the odds.

As the figures moved closer into view, I could visibly see that they were all robots. Each one was brown with rust. Each body was shaped into a capsule of some sort. The shoulders were metallic spehers with two small aluminium cylinders as arms. Then, another set of rusty metallic cylinders made up the hands. The legs were more-or-less made up of the same components, but were much shorter. Even if these digimon looked like cyborg dwarfs, the large numbers made me shudder in fear.

"So... got a plan?" I asked.

"Nope," Veemon answered. "You're the one who usually thinks. I act."

"Great." I rolled my eyes. "So... got any idea how to digivolve?"

"Unless you have some incredible way of summoning a digivice, then no," Veemon answered.

The robots looked at us with their evil glowing red eyes (things with glowing red eyes are usually evil, and I'm going to stick to that for now), and all of them beeped. "Human present. Scanning DNA. Hiroto Kiyoshi located. Target locked. Begin purging sequence."

"Wow, how do they know my name?" I wondered, taking a step back as the robots raised their arms.

"I dunno'. Everyone we fight knows your name. Why doesn't anyone ever say _Veemon_ instead of Hiroto?" Veemon complained. "Let's pound the nuts and bolts out of these guys!"

"Wait. Don't be hasty." I stoppd Veemon by the shoulder as he was about to pounce. However, standing here wasn't seeming too good either, as the robots' fingertips were aimed right at us. Any second, they'd unleash a barrage of bombs our way. "They may have missiles hidden somewhere."

"Those missiles just explode and poof with smoke; they don't do real damage," Veemon boasted, "The Guardromon's missiles aren't that dangerous. The last one I fought went down easy."

"The last one?" I repeated. "The last _one_? Earth to Veemon! There are _twelve_ of them here now!"

"I like to think of it as one on one, and again and again and again," Veemon shrugged. "Besides, I can't lose now. I haven't had my lunch yet."

I sighed. We were outnumbered six to one and Veemon was _still_ thinking about food. "On the count of three."

Veemon nodded in understanding.

"One..." I crouched, ready to pounce, but Veemon beat me to it.

"Three!" Veemon burst out, and lashed at a robot.

The Guardromon he targetted went tumbling backwards. Another shot a few missiles at Veemon, and he attempted to defend himself with his forehead. Seriously, his forehead is breaking all laws of science. I mean, holding up against a missile? That was just pushing it. Then again, I'd seen weirder things, so I wasn't completely stumped when the missiles just exploded harmlessly of his forehead.

All the Guardromon started firing like nuts. The entire room was a battlefield, or a warzone, or whatever. I had to duck, jump, and slide to avoid being blown to bits. However, since the Guardromon deemed Veemon a bigger threat than me (which isn't making sense, as their intended target was me), they started focusing their attention on him. It wasn't hard making my way around the shop, and I manouvered my way to one of the Guardromons' backs.

My plan: dismantle the Guardromon. The task was easier said than done. The lock on their bodies were like steel. I couldn't budge even the lid covering their wiring or computer system, so it was impossible to sabotage them the way one would sabotage a car. Besides, the Guardromon I was working on didn't seem happy about my trying to pry his lid open. So, I moved onto plan B.

Plan B was simple. Join Veemon and unleash fury upon the Guardromon that seemed to have skin of steel (robot-wise, I guess that's true). I pushed a Guardromon into another, and the two of them collapsed to the ground. Another aimed missiles at my head, and they missed by a small margin. Looking back at Veemon, he had already punched one till it was so out of shape it disintegrated. Good. One down, eleven more to go.

I grabbed one by the hand, and somehow managed to swing him into another Guardromon. Trust me, they were heavy (I know because they were hard enough to push), but I don't know why I didn't feel a thing when I threw him just now. Maybe it was newfound strength at the sight of Veemon defeating a Guardromon with simple punches. Okay, maybe not _simple_, but lightning-fast punches.

Speaking of lightning, I felt a surge of electricity go up my spine. Looking backwards, I saw a Guardromon with his hand aimed at me. The hand had morphed into a taser-like weapon, but it seemed to take time to recharge as the Guardromon didn't continuously shock me with it. Taking the chance, I kicked the taser-like object on his hand, and the entire arm exploded. Ouch, I know, but he deserved it. Besides, no harm was done as he floated back to the digital world in a heap of data.

Two down, ten more to go. Wait, make that nine more to go, as Veemon's just done with another Guardromon. I was surprised at how easy he was making this look. I mean, he seemed to follow the same strategy over and over again – punch randomly, defend with forehead, and continue punching – and the Guardromon didn't seem to be getting smarter about it. Since over half of them were concentrating on Veemon, my job was made a whole lot easier.

Evading missiles and bombs, I moved up to a missile-crazy Guardromon. I grabbed him by the hand and thought back to this morning. I tried to remember in detail what Selene had done when she attempted to judo-throw me. Taking my chance, I tried the move on him and – surprise, surprise – it worked like a charm. The Guardromon flew into a wall and burst into a million pieces of scattered data, all of which flew back to the digital world.

Eight more Guardromon to go, and I was already feeling tired. My muscles ached, and I was feeling dizzy again. Out of the corner of my eye, I also saw Veemon's reflexes slowing down. He was shot by three missiles and he didn't have time to block or escape them. Soon, we'd just be overpowered. Gosh, I hate losing, which has been happening to me more often lately. Within seconds, he was thrown against the wall next to me, and he struggled to get up.

The remaining Guardromon seemed to be taking their time now that they knew we were almost beaten. I hate people (or things) like that, you know? One moment you're fighting with all you've got, and the next moment you're beaten and ready to be disposed of. Not that it's ever happened to me, and I definitely didn't lose out to Yuki.

Well, forget I said anything, the Guardromon were really fueling my anger now, but I didn't know why I wasn't feeling any adrenaline. The first few times I had fought alongside Veemon, I had been able to (unconsciously) activate a sensation that made me almost-invincible. However, that happened very rarely now, so I doubted I could count on it to save me from this Guardromon attack. No, I would need a miracle to save me.

As if on cue, someone crashed in through the window (why didn't I think of escaping through the window in the first place?).\

Glass shattered across the floor, but that didn't matter. The thing that caught my attention were the two figures that flew in through the window. The guy who sprang in from the window looked around fifteen with messy brown hair. His grey eyes made it hard for me to judge his expression, but it wasn't happy. He wore a dark red T-shirt with tribal markings on the shoulders, black combat trousers, and a pair of black-and-red-themed sneakers. From where I stood, I could also make out a small line – a scar – around his left ear. He wore a wristwatch on his left hand which, by the looks of it, was very expensive.

The little monster (yes, the second figure's a digimon) was harder to describe. It was... maybe reptilian-like? A brown fur pelt was covering its head like a mask. It also covered the digimon's two hands form the arms to the claws. There were two extra 'sleeves' that flapped mildly in the wind like a scarf. The digimon's skin was dark yellow, with a blue circle on its tummy with weird engravings. The claws on the digimon's hands were purple, but the claws on its feet were white.

"Additional human detected. Estimate: Hiroto Kiyoshi's clone," the eight Guardromon beeped. "Additional digimon detected. Estimate: Veemon's clone. Initiate purging sequence."

The teen should've been freaked out, but maybe he jumped in because he was brave. Yes, that's what he looked: brave. "Eight Guardromon. Think you can handle it, Lightmon?" Was it just me, or was the kid smiling?

"Of course, no problem!" Lightmon boasted.

The teen reached for something from his right pocket. I gasped as he slid it out. Held tightly in his grip was a TransVice. Oh, why did I even bother to be surprised at this moment? Almost all the new people I met nowadays were either digidestined or people who wanted to destroy me. Anyway, the crystal in the middle was green, which didn't quite match the teen's red and black outfit.

"Lightmon, digivolve!" the teen shouted, and held out the TransVice towards Lightmon.

"Lightmon, digivolve to..." A bright light enveloped Lightmon, and it was basically a replay of the digivolution act Selene had pulled yesterday with Dorumon.

Once the blinding light faded, a different digimon stood in Lightmon's place. It was a large (if you prefer, then _huge_) wolf that stood about a foot taller than me. It was covered in snow-white fur – kinda' like an arctic wolf's – with some red tribal markings in several spots. I didn't need to see this digimon in a fight to know that it was a more-than-worthy opponent. It's muscular legs and strong jaws already helped me estimate its strength.

"Strikemon!" the wolf bellowed. All the other glasses in the shop shattered from the ferocity. "Red Shot!"

The wolf let out a huge war cry followed by a ball of flame. The fireball was as big as Tyrannomon's – is possible, it was bigger than the T-rex's – and it was aimed at a Guardromon. It engulfed the robot digimon and spread like wildfire to burn up four more of the robots kind. Within seconds, all five of them were successfully incinerated and data-fied (is that what you call it?). I watched in awe as Strikemon easily took down another Guardromon single-handedly with his claws.

The three remaining Guardromon shrank back in fear. "Error. Error. Scanning DNA. Will detected." I thought they were foolishly going to once again initiate their purging sequence. As expected from robots, they were. "Begin purging sequence."

Will took two steps backwards as the Guardromon raised their missile-hands. Before they could fire, however, the teen yelled to Strikemon, "Now!"

"Got it! Red Shot!" the wolf roared, and I watched in complete awe as the surprised Guardromon went up in flames.

"Now that _that's _taken care of," Will turned to me. "You okay, Hiroto?"

Strikemon was already turning back to Lightmon by now. Veemon still had his mouth wide open in shock, and he didn't look like he was going to budge from his immobile position anytime soon. Even though I should've been grateful for Will for saving my hide, I didn't think he picked this mannequin shop to rescue me. He came here to exterminate the digimon.

Regardless of the shock, I was able to gather myself and ask a question. "How'd you know my name?" I asked. Like Veemon said before, almost everyone we fight annoyingly knows my name.

"I've... heard stories about you," Will grinned. "I mean, rumours come and go, you know?"

"I guess," I answered. "How did you-"

"How the heck did you do that awesome light thing? And the awesome fire thing? It was like, boom! Crash! Smash! Wow! Awesome! It's neat how you punched that Guardromon!" Veemon exclaimed, jumping up and down.

"Uhh... it's called digivolving," Lightmon replied. "And I didn't do any punching."

"I know! That's why I'm saying _I'm_ so awesome!" Veemon didn't seem to think his actions were a little rude to the other party. But when has he ever been considerate about others' feelings, anyway?

"How'd you do that digivolving thing?" I repeated my digimon partner's indirect question, turning my attention from Veemon to Will. Lightmon was trying to calm Veemon down, but as soon as he did, they both got into a deep conversation regarding food.

"It's easy, really. Just takes a lot of practice. It's a wonderful thing that everyone should try out once in a while. Just don't do it too often or you'll go crazy with power and attempt to take over the world, which isn't a good thing, but not a bad thing either if you really manage to unite the world under one roof and achieve world peace. However, if you do achieve world peace-"

"Umm... what?" I interrupted. I had a feeling we were getting a little out of topic, what with the 'take over the world' topic and all.

"Come on, that was a joke. I mean, power equals conquest and everything, right?" Will stated, turning back for a moment to look outside. I spotted something on his back, but I decided not to mention it yet.

I just replied, "Right..."

"Darn, that joke never works on eleven-year-olds," Will groaned. "I guess you really have to be thirteen and above to actually understand it."

"Are you saying I'm immature?"

"No, but you ought to laugh once in a while," Will replied. "From what I've heard about you, you only smile and grin but you never really break into a fit of laughter. Being human is partly about laughing your head off. Anyway, my name's Will. Will Murphy."

"And I'm Hiroto Kiyoshi," I shook his hand. "But I guess you already know that."

"Yep, I do," Will answered. "I've also heard that you like to jump into battles and endanger your own life. You do know that, as a digidestined, you shouldn't be doing such reckless stuff?"

"You do know that, as digidestined, we're supposed to protect friendly digimon, which also includes our partners?" I countered.

"Good comeback," Will complimented. I was feeling proud of myself, until, "for a kid."

"Who tells you about all this stuff?" I asked. "I mean, you seem to know everything about me, while I know squat about you except for your name, the fact that you're a digidestined, and you're fifteen."

"How'd you know that I was fifteen? I didn't tell you that, did I?" Will squinted his eyes at me. Good. He was starting to see me in a new light, one that didn't involve a small immature weak kid.

"Well, I do have amazing powers of perception," I boasted.

Unfortunately, Veemon spoiled it all for me. "That, and there's a huge white sheet of paper stuck to your back which says 'Hey, I'm fifteen! Come date me if you want! I am totally cool!'"

"What? Really?" Will looked surprised. He grabbed the white piece of paper on his back and yanked it off his shirt. "Darn it. She even signed it! With a smiley face, too! I'm going to have a talk with her when I get home."

"Who, your girlfriend?" I inquired.

"No. My girlfriend lives in Odaiba."

"Your to-be-girlfriend," Lightmon corrected.

"Must you spoil everything? I already have it all figured out. I'll save her once, ask her out, invite her to Tokyo, show her around, and then finally ask her out a second time," Will grinned with his face beaming with brilliance. "A pretty smart plan, don't you think?"

"Why'd you have to ask the girl out a second time?" I asked.

"Everybody knows that, the first time you ask a girl, it's to get to know each other better. Then, when you finally decide you want to be with her, you ask her out a second time. Don't you get that simple science?"

"No."

"Well, I guess you'll get it once you finally fall in love with someone," Will smiled, looking like he knew something I didn't. I hated it when people did that. It makes me feel inferior to them. "Since you're a Kiyoshi, does that mean you live at the Kiyoshi mansion further up the street?"

"You know my name, my age, my life, but you're hesitant about my obvious house address?" I asked.

"Okay, okay, just trying to make conversation," Will said. "And before I go, beware the pedestrians."

I was about to ask him what he meant, but by then he had already left through the front door. Strangely, it had been locked while the Guardromon were occupying the room.

"Man, I like that guy," Veemon sighed. I nodded in agreement, but then got a strange tingle up my spine.

For a second, I was worried that there was another Guardromon in hiding somewhere in this room. Then, I heard something that annihilated the thought. It wasn't the clink-clank of metal, nor was it the sound of moving mechanism. Instead, it was a swirling, swishing sound, similar to that of a whirlpool, which was followed by a mysterious growl, which sounded oddly familiar. Before I managed to remember what those sounds were, both the swishing and growling abruptly stopped.

"Veemon, did you hear that?" I asked.

"Hear what?" Veemon asked, looking at me with a confused face. "I didn't hear a fart, 'cause I definitely didn't fart, so don't accuse me that I farted, 'cause I didn't fart!"

"No, that's not what I- You farted?" I asked. Veemon's white cheeks were clearly reddened by embarassment. "Anyway, that's not what I meant. Did you hear a swirling, swishing, whirlpool-like sound? Or a deep, low growl?"

"Oh, of course I did!" Veemon smiled. "The swirling and swishing is the sound of the food being digested in my tummy-" Veemon patted his stomach. "-and the growling sound is my tummy asking for more food! So let's hurry home and get busy with pre-tea, tea, post-tea, pre-dinner, dinner, post-dinner, and desert!"

You have to give him credit for his creativity in hopes of getting more food, but no way was I going to fall for that. Now that I think of it, no way was _anyone_ going to fall for something like that, not if they had their sanity and knew some common sense. Then again, common sense isn't really so common these days, so maybe Veemon could get some food out of others, if he was lucky enough.

"Is that really _all_ you think about?"

"No, I also think about sleeping and eating," Veemon replied innocently.

"I think you're forgetting head-butting," I added in.

"Yeah, I guess I did," Veemon replied, smiling dreamily. I was unaware of his thoughts, but I'd bet my whole year's allowance (believe me, it's a lot) that it was related to head-butting others. "So, are we going home or what?"

"Sure," I agreed.

I didn't fancy staying in this mannequin shop a minute longer. However, before I left, I could've sworn I heard the growl once more before. This time, there was a hint of anger in its tone. Weird... but not actually freaky enough to send me screaming.

* * *

><p>Any mistakes? Vocabulary-wise, grammar-wise, or plot-line-wise? Please inform me so I may change it in time. If there's anything you don't understand, feel free to ask me. I may have accidentally added in a point or created a plothole without even knowing it until it's too late. As every writer knows, no story is perfect, and it's the readers who bring it as close as possible to ultimate perfection. And now, for Will's info.<p>

Name: Will Murphy  
>Age: 15<br>Digivice: Gold TransVice  
>Crest: Protection<br>Appearance: Messy dark brown hair, grey eyes, pale skin, dark red T-shirt with tribal markings on the shoulders, black combat trousers, and black and red sneakers. Has a scar near the left ear. Sometimes dons a black jacket. Wears a watch on his left wrist.  
>Persoality: Kind, quiet, stubborn and determined. Likes making others laugh. Will advises people whenever possible. He tries handling everything alone as he dislikes others getting injured. He's romantic and flirtateous to the girl he likes, but no one else.<br>History: Will has been a digidestined for three years, and therefore his experience regarding digimon is so far the best. He is known as 'The Guardian' in some parts of the digital world, and 'Saxon the Killer' in other parts. His status and titles are known by all digimon, but not feared by all. Will continuously wanders the central district of Tokyo searching for rogue digimon to take on in hopes of keeping the town safe. Though he knows fairly well that he is incapable of always handling the digimon threat, he still intends to single-handedly complete the job.  
>Digimon Partner: Lightmon<br>Personality:Fun-loving, life-loving, glutton, but very serious in a fight.

As you can see, I added the 'Digivice' info there thanks to Seishirou's contributions. For everyone's convenience, I'll list out the other digidestined's digivices as well. Hiroto and Drake's digivices are currently unknown, whereas Selene's is silver in colour.

Please read and review.


	9. The Dragon Digidestined

Diao Lover  
><em>are you still accepting OCs<br>_Well, it's not whether I'm still accepting OCs or not. Rather, it's whether you want to submit your OCs or not. If you want to submit one, feel free to do so. However, OCs won't be revealed until their debut chapter.

Something dictionary related  
><em>Is Will Selene's brother?<br>_Where'd you get that idea? Is it because Selene's last name isn't revealed yet? But good question... ;)

Phantomgirl96  
><em>Yeah update!<br>I saw a few things, like curious spelled curios, but with the Mobile site I can't find/fix them.  
><em>Wait... curious is spelled 'curios'? I always thought it was spelled with the 'u'. I hope you like this chapter, even though it's really really _really_ late. :)

pokemon fan 1991  
><em>I love this chapter and who is the girl that will is talking about? I can't wait for your next update.<br>_The girl Will mentioned whom you're referring to is probably Sora. She's the girl from the Digimon Adventures and Digimon Adventures 02 series? She owns a Biyomon and is Will's girlfriend-to-be. Sort-of. Anymore questions? Ask away.

Elegon  
><em>Still good as ever! I love the way you're able to describe the battle scenes. Hiroto and Veemon are an awesome duo with some crazy fighting skills. I like the way you've been adding in the characters and their partners. I can't wait for more! :D Also, is my character still in this story?<br>_Thanks! I put all my effort into making the battle scenes interesting, so I'm glad they're not disappointing.  
>To be honest, I chose Veemon in place of other digimon candidates because he's a melee fighter. I could've easily picked Guilmon (or any other diigmon out there) to be Hiroto's parttner, but I figured there would've been more action if both characters were short-ranged fighters. I'm glad I made the right choice.<br>Is your character still in this story...? Well, since it's already been revealed in the original story, I guess I can tell you. Besides, I guess I owe you at least that much. Yes, your character will definitely be in the story, but he won't make an appearance until Arc 2.

Tendou Souji  
><em>I don't really think that this chapter was that late but if you think so, then the solution would be to update the next chapter faster.<br>Nice chapter here. Grammar and descriptions were good, not to mention that The Three Demons have returned. Felt a little sorry for Hiroto. First, he almost got tossed like a rag doll and then he gets shown up by another Digidestined. I can only imagine the amount of frustration and helplessness he's feeling. Well, I guess he would have to make room for some more depression if you plan on Seishirou being in the next chapter.  
>Regarding your question, if that were the situation, then Seishirou's TransVice would suddenly glow an intense blue light. The 'wings' would then lengthen considerably and detach from the center of the device. They would then replicate, forming two sets of wings before attaching themselves back onto the TransVice so that they form a pseudo-cannon of energy. Seishirou then concentrates his will into the 'cannon' and fires a stream of light in the shape of dragon which engulfs Wingdramon, making him achieve the final digivolution state.<br>Also, think you can make Selene and Will present in the scene where Seishirou and Dracomon saves Hiroto and Veemon? It'll be fun to see their reactions. Just imagine Dracomon and his evolutions as __Ultraman Agul. The way he emerges on the battlefield invites destruction, same with the way he fights. He only cares about accomplishing his goal with little care for those who may get caught in the cross-__fire.  
>There you go. Update soon.<br>~Tendou Souji~  
><em>Long review as usual. Deeply appreciated. :D  
>You might not think the chapter is late, but I'm still apologizing just to be safe in case there're people out there who are angered by my lateness. Besides, I'm sure this time, my chapter is really really late.<br>I have to agree with you that Hiroto's been shown up and hasn't really gotten the time to shine in his life yet. However, Seishirou is a key part of this story, so making Hiroto feel...' useless', for the moment is worth while.  
>Thanks for all the information. And one more question. If Seishirou were to summon Dracomon out for battle, would he evolve Dracomon in the middle of the fight? If so, would you like any special animation?<br>I'll try to picture the scene according to what you've stated, though I doubt it would be that easy. For one thing, the previous digidestined already know one another, so meeting each other wouldn't be so surprising. However, knowing one another doesn't mean knowing each other's limits...  
>I hope you enjoy this chapter!<p>

NovelistOfTheSky  
><em>This rapidly improved my day. You've improved again and it's a pleasure to read your style, I have to admit I wasn't a fan of it originally, something about it didn't sit right with me (not that you were bad, just personal taste). Now,however, I love it, I love reading how you write.<br>You wrote Will brilliantly , probably better than most I've seen use him. I liked the Digivice and the joke that was played on him :P All in all a really great chapter.  
>I noticed only two tiny typo's. One was a  and "strongs" instead of "strong".  
>Also, Kung fu panda is awesome XD<br>_Thanks.  
>I don't really blame you for not being a fan initially. Even I admit my original writing style did have some kinks to work out. On the other hand, I'm glad that you now enjoy my writing.<br>I think it's just your personal taste that I can write Will well. I'm sure that others are also very good at that. Plus, the digivice and the joke were just added so I could try and bring out Will's personality. Hopefully I got it right. If there's anything to tweak about his performance, please inform me so I can fix it before Will's next appearance. If there's nothing to change, then I hope I can continue writing him this well.  
>The '' was intended, but I've fixed the 'strongs'. Thanks for the help.  
>Kung Fu Panda rocks! I especially like watching the final battle. What about you?<p>

Rye Lee  
><em>Here's my OC-Name: Kaiden 'Kay' Mykal Lee<br>Age: 16  
>Gender: Male<br>Physical: Standing at five foot seven with long red hair and green eyes. He has a tattoo of the symbol for the planet Venus in the middle of his forehead. He uses hair gel to keep his hair out of his eyes, with a black t-shirt, dark blue shorts, and yellow boots with one white fingerless glove on his left hand. He wears his Digivice on his left front hip.  
>Personality: Kaiden is kinda serious when it comes to danger, he will defend people he cares about with his very life if he has to. If he's bored he whips out his Ipod and listens to some music. He takes his mission very seriously because he knows he's protecting his friends.<br>History: Kaiden grew up with his best friend Jessica(Jess) in an orphanage, he can't remember not __being there. His life was never perfect, the only good thing about it was having his best friend there with him, they both witnessed the battle of Omnimon and Diaboromon on the internet years ago.  
>Origin: San Francisco, California<br>Partner: Lopmon  
>Digivolution Route:<br>In-Training: Kokomon  
>Rookie: Lopmon<br>Champion: Turuiemon  
>Ultimate: AntylamonData<br>Mega: CherubimonGood(the lighter colored version).  
><em>Thanks for the OC submission. It's quite nice. I have to admit I didn't know a Turuiemon existed before this, and I'm lucky I had the assistance of .com. Thanks for the extra info!

c0nV3Rs3-LuVr  
><em>Wow, I could not review this story until I had read all these chapters and I have to say this is really good. I've read most of these in third person but it's nice that you changed it up. Your writing skills are pretty amazing as well. I like all the detail that you give into everything, I can even imagine all of this in my head as if it were an actual Digimon series. The digivices sound really cool, Tendou Souji gave you one heck of an idea. I am really hating Hiroto's siblings, I could just butthead in them myself if Veemon won't. I especially love the personality you gave Veemon, it's very...playful I guess you could. I can't wait to read more and keep up the great work. :)<em>  
>Thanks. I'm writing this in first-person because there're very few of these out there and I hope to contribute to this figure so people can feel the joy of reading first-person stories.<br>I try to give my all into detailing this story, which seems to be the main reason this chapter keeps dragging on. Hopefully, you'll forgive me for my lateness. And I'm real glad you can actually visualize this in your head. :D  
>Haha, I'd also head-butt Hiroto's siblings myself if they weren't key ingredients in this story. Well, maybe we can head-butt them when they've done their part. ^ ^<br>Thanks, and I hope you continue to enjoy my writing!

Super g  
><em>sorry it took me so long to reveiw i did a R&amp;Leave. that usually pisses Authors off.<br>About Selene's problems how about she don't quit, but half azz it?  
>Will's got a cool digimon i thought he looked similar to gabumon.<br>Vmon really needs to digivolve. Did he really fart? i wouldn't think he'd be embarassed about that. Seems like the type to just let one go.  
>Again i momentarily sunk back into my *Very*old habit of 'silent reading'<em>  
>Haha, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. :)<br>Will's digimon does somewhat look like Gabumon, but I won't give comment about other people's OCs unless it's already stated in their OC submission. I don't want to 'mess up' other people's OCs, whether by accident or on purpose.  
>Veemon really needs to digivolve, doesn't he? Well, don't worry, 'cause he will in a few chapters. And yes, he did fart. And no matter how idiotic a person may seem, there're still some things to be embarassed of, right?<br>Thanks for the review. It really encourages me in my writing. :D

Before we go on, I really want to apologize and say that I'm really, really, really sorry that this chapter came so late. I've been kept busy with a lot of things like exams, sports, books, movies, and all that. Hopefully this chapter isn't a let-down, considering how long I took to make it and how long I dragged it on. If you see anything that needs improving, please inform me, especially you, Tendou Souji. Thanks. Now, please enjoy this chapter.

* * *

><p>Digimon Miracles<br>The Start of Miracles  
>Chapter 9: The Dragon Digidestined<p>

I tossed and turned in bed. It was difficult urging myself to sleep. The clock on my bedside table showed that it was already well over midnight. Some mysterious force seemed to be keeping me up. Whenever I almost drifted off, I would be awakened minutes later. And no, I do not have insomnia, in case any of you are wondering. It could've been anything keeping me awake, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. However, the whirlpool sounds and the horrific growls from before were likely the culprits.

Oh, and I'd also deciphered Will's warning a few hours ago. Back when Will had helped me and Veemon triumph over the Guardromon, he had warned us to beware the pedestrians. I wracked my brain for the answers but drew a blank. Not long after, the meaning to his words struck me like lightning. Sometimes, to find something, you have to stop looking for it (cheesy line, don't you agree?). Back to the topic, I never expected the answers to be as simple as A-B-C.

_Beware the pedestrians_, he had warned. The first people to come to mind were probably gangsters, bikers, motorcyclers, pranksters, robbers, or thieves. As it turns out, Will wasn't mentioning any of them. The ones he'd been referring to were much worse and much more terrorizing. They could imprison you with the press of a button. Even Rinji wasn't that amazing... No, not that I think about it, Rinji has ways to make people suffer fates much worse than that.

Will had been referring to civilized people.

Yes, you didn't hear me wrong. Civilized people. They may seem polite but underneath their soft exterior is a strict interior. Once they catch sight of anything out of the ordinary, they'll be on their cellphones calling the authorities and lodging reports. Speaking of civilized people, where were they when Drake had gone all samurai on me? Defeating Shoutmon in his mutated form told me the Drake would be laying low for a while, but I doubted Shoutmon would be wise enough to stay away from the freak.

Coming back to 'civilized people', Veemon and I had been standing in the mannequin shop celebrating our half-victory against the Guardromon (well, Will _did_ help out _a lot_). Just as we were exiting the shop, we heard hundreds of thunderously loud footsteps outside. Peering out of one of the cracked glass windows, I saw hundreds of people walking outside. Weird... It was a miracle they hadn't yet seen me or Veemon.

Against Veemon's will, I tackled him downwards. I only loosened my grip when he degenerated. It wasn't because I thought it was safe but instead he was just way too small for me to keep a firm grip on. I had to stash him in my backpack before I decided it was even safe to stand up and continue on home. DemiVeemon must've been badly suffering as he squirmed a lot in my bag (I guess I failed to position him comfortably).

Yeah, that's mostly what happened. Long story short, Will had predicted the arrival of hundreds of people (or maybe just dozens) and had escaped with his partner before he was sighted. I, on the other hand, was too busy feeling proud of winning and had left out significant details. Therefore, I was forced to sneak home like a fugitive.

Back in my room, I looked up at the ceiling. Heck, I'm so energetic now I bet I could go for round two against the Tyrannomon that had beat the crap out of me. Only the rhythmic ticking of the clock and Veemon's steady snoring accompanied me throughout the night. Even if Veemon was sleeping like a log, I knew he'd be up in less than two hours to raid a snack from the kitchen. How the heck did Rinji, Mai and Yuki _not_ realize the decrease in food supply after all this time?

After banging my head on my pillow for what-might-be the seventy-ninth time, I managed to bore myself out of doing that. Coincidentally, my body felt the same way, and finally resorted to getting some rest. Ah, asleep at last...

The next day, I woke up at around six thirty in the morning. Don't misunderstand. I'm not disciplined to the point where I wake up everyday at six o'clock sharp. In fact, I prefer to sleep until seven or eight before I really get out of bed. The reason for my sudden jolt from sleep was a loud screeching noise that came from the ground floor, which I recognized as Yuki's unmistakable voice. It took me some time to decipher her words through her screams, which mostly revolved around 'gone' and 'lose'.

I ignored her continuous shrieks, which was kinda' impossible, since she was screaming her lungs out (Yuki can be very loud when she wants to be), and tried to get to sleep. Epic fail. Everytime my eyelids closed, Yuki would scream like it was the end of the world. Whose attention was she trying to grasp? The same routine repeated itself a dozen times before I finally gave in. Seeing as I wouldn't be getting my badly-needed sleep anytime soon, I brushed my teeth and got dressed.

I decided not to wake DemiVeemon up (his face was now littered with chocolate cream). Obviously I didn't want to reveal him to Rinji, Mai or Yuki, so my bedroom was the only safe place as they _never_ venture there. I think they're afraid they'll get infected with the air I constantly breathe in or something. On a side note, I also didn't wake the small glutton up because I hoped to be able to feast more with him out of the way. Unlike my siblings, I need the extra nutrition.

As I walked drowzily down the stairs, a desperated-looking Mai dashed through me. Her hair was undone and left in a complete mess, which was really rare (not that I'm complaining), and the speed she was running with could've easily won her a gold medal in the Olympic Games. She was screaming for Rinji. She was clearly panicked, another trait which she seldom displayed. My eldest brother and sister are the most courteous people I know (to others, not to me) and it was rare enough that they'd share a smile. So, seeing Mai like this stirred my curiousity. Just what happened?

A second later, another loud scream emitted from the kitchen. Okay, now my interest was piqued. Had a mouse successfully cornered Yuki? Did beetles invade our house overnight and eaten every single one of Yuki's favourite food? No, I'm not really worried about Yuki herself. Okay, fine, maybe just a little, but _only_ a little. And the only reason I'm concerned is because I'm passing this news over to the school's newspaper board.

I walked into the kitchen and got the shock of a lifetime. All the cupboards were opened and their contents had been emptied onto the floor. Some juice had spilt and smeared the floor with a once-delicious-now-yucky shade of red (probably raspberry). The cookie jar was also emptied out, and it was hurtful to see cookies in bits and pieces on the floor. Oh, and Yuki was also frantically digging through drawer after drawer.

I sighed in disappointment loud enough for Yuki to hear. She turned around, alerted to my presence, and she didn't look happy about my arrival. She faced me with sorry-looking eyes that made me want to puke, but her expression quickly turned into a death glare with the silent statement of 'I will kill you and I will do it painfully'. Ooh, someone's touchy this morning. Well, at least she didn't eye me with a butter knife in hand.

"You took my lucky charm, didn't you?" she raged, pointing her index finger at me.

"What are you talking about?" was the best thing I could say.

"You know what I'm talking about!" Yuki snapped. "Now stop pretending and give it to me, or else!"

"Oh, I'll give it to you alright. But the 'it' I'm referring to might not be the 'it' you're thinking of." To make my point, I continued, "Maybe students want to know the more panicked Yuki. You know, the star girl gone cuckoo?"

"You wouldn't dare...!" she threatened.

"I already have the pictures to prove it," I lied. Heck, my camera's not even functioning properly. But, Yuki was way too messed up to remember that.

Yuki screamed in anger and lunged at me like a tigress. Despite her wild behaviour, I easily backstepped her attack and she landed flat on the floor. She glared daggers at me like I was guilty of a million crimes and was wanted with the highest reward in dozens of countries. In her eyes, I probably was.

A pair of feet rushed down the stairs, followed by another. The first pair belonged to Mai, who dashed past me so quickly I unwillingly spun three hundred and sixty degrees. She got down next to Yuki and helped her sit up, uttering words of comfort into her ear. Despite her attempts, Mai failed badly. Yuki cried louder and louder until, finally, Rinji strided into the room.

Rinji walked past me in a hurry and bent down beside a crying Yuki. "Looking for you good luck charm?" he asked her sympathetically. How' he know what she was looking for?

Yuki managed a nod and started crying again. Tears streamed down her cheeks and they could've produced a river longer than the Nile. I felt stupid – and a little awkward – just standing there, but the closest thing to compassion right now was pouring a jug of ice cold water over her head. It's mean, but she'd be angry enough to forget her sadness, so it works. Hey, when you find what works, you stick to it.

Meanwhile, Rinji looked around and whistled at the sight of the kitchen. If I had been the cause of the mess, he'd definitely erupt like a volcano. Rinji helped Yuki to her feet and whispered something into her ear. A smile crept onto her face while my mouth creased into a frown. Rinji had said it soft enough so it would seem like he was trying to pass a secret, but in reality he had said it loud enough for me to hear.

"Yuki, the charm isn't really lucky. It's just a superstition. I know you think it's magical since you _annihilate_ Hiroto's team-" my blood boiled at this comment, "-mercilessly everytime you wear it. But, why don't you show your snotty, irresponsible, childish, responsibility-shirking, work-hating, idiotic _little_ brother that you can easily beat him _without_ the charm?" By now I was ready to introduce him to Veemon's forehead.

Yuki smiled widely while I tried to picture what he was talking about. Charm... team... field... Oh my gosh, today was the day the team from Okinawa was challenging Saikou, wasn't it? I can't believe I completely forgot about the event! Well, I guess you can't blame me. What with not being chosen for the match, battling rampaging digimon, keeping peace, fighting an out-of-control samurai, and meeting half a dozen new people, I guess I got sidetracked.

Rinji easily convinced Yuki to take her breakfast which consisted of a huge bowl of ramen with fishcakes. I retreated from the kitchen before Rinji started barking orders for me to clean the mess up. He'd find a way to put the blame on me and make me look guilty for everything. He always does. Lucky for me, my parents know of my innocence since my siblings have been acting this way since I was eight.

Back in my room, DemiVeemon was still sleeping soundly. Maybe 'soundly' was the wrong word to use; he was making heck a lot of noise. His snoring might be enough to awaken a hibernating polar bear. I walked over to my bookshelf and traced my fingers over the many interesting titles, wondering which one to read. I don't determine a book's value by its author, cover, or contents. Instead, I pick a book which best suits my mood, and right now I'm interested in an adventure novel.

Two hours passed uneventfully, unless you count DemiVeemon's noisy awakening an event. By noisy, I don't mean crying-loudly-like-a-baby, but instead the wake-up-and-go-insane type of noisy. Yup, DemiVeemon made a beeline for the kitchen and I almost failed to stop him. It's hard to hold onto a small digimon who has twice your strength but isn't even a third of your size.

At nine, Rinji brought Yuki out for soccer practice. Mai went along to give some morale support. I descended to the kitchen with Veemon (he usually digivolves when he's either out of my room or out of my bag) for breakfast. Miraculously, my siblings had gotten the entire place shining within two hours. I had the entire kitchen to myself, other than Veemon. I heated up a regular-sized pizza. Veemon took most of it, though, so I compensated by drinking lemonade.

Around ten, I started off for the stadium. Veemon still wasn't too fond of travelling in a bag, but there were no other options. Maybe I should purchase a separate bag especially for Veemon, or _Demi_Veemon. Anyway, it was disappointing to go to a news-breaking game when my potentially skilled team wasn't playing. Well, I could give moral support, like yelling 'Down with Yuki!' or 'Go Okinawa!'. That oughta' lift their spirits and boost their momentum. Wait, were we talking about supporting Yuki's team? My bad, but I don't really see the upside to that.

The road to the stadium was badly crowded. It seemed like the entire town was going to watch the match. As I cut my way through the crowd, a certain tingle set off somewhere within me. Oh please don't tell me there was a digimon nearby. First of all, I didn't have sufficient breakfast, so I'm not in top shape. Second, there's too many people here for me to engage in a battle. Third... I... uh... forget about the third. To put it simply, I do _not_ want to fight a digimon here... or anywhere else for that matter.

Unfortunately, things didn't go my way as usual. I heard a giant roar and the entire street went stiff with fright. Soon, I heard the sound of loud stampeding feet maximising with every second before a four-legged monster emerged from an old abandoned alleyway. The walls around it were crumbling due to its size. People all around me panicked (wow, this seems like a day filled with panic) and scattered in several directions.

The monster resembled a Triceratops. It had a grayish-black mask on which doubled as armour for its back. A single horn grew out from its nose. Its gray skin looked rough and durable; the perfect material for defending against most forms of physical attacks. Its shoulders, elbows, and knees were covered by the same material. Its blunt claws were grayish-black in colour as well. Without its fierce demeaner, it'd be a perfect mascot for a funeral... not that a funeral actually needed a mascot.

The monster roared and ran towards me, trampling everything in its path into pancakes. Trees, lamp posts, and garbage cans were either knocked aside or smashed flat. Rubbish flew everywhere, littering the surroundings. That wasn't my biggest worry. The growing crisis at hand was the monster which was charging at me at full speed. Its constant roaring didn't ease my nerves either. I dived to my right to avoid its first tackle. The digimon crashed head-first into a grocery store, not that it would feel pain.

Probably annoyed by all the noise and movement, DemIVeemon unzipped my bag from within and poked his head out before starting his rant of complaints. "What's with all the moving around? Are we there yet? I'm hungry..."

"Uhh... DemiVeemon?" I pointed at the destroyed grocery store with the monster's body sticking out of it, hoping he would get my point.

"Oh! A Monochromon!" DemiVeemon exclaimed in excitement. "I haven't fought a Monochromon in ages! This should be fun!"

"What?"

The Monochromon freed itself from the grocery store doors, and shook some debris (including some smashed up fruits and vegetables) off its head. It roared in rage and the entire store shook. Lucky for me, it didn't crumble down into a chain that involved other stores. The Monochromon looked at me with killer eyes and I staggered backwards. Somehow, it reminded me of Yuki, only not as hideous.

DemiVeemon wasn't the least fazed. He acted like he experienced this everyday. Maybe this is what you call 'fun' in the digital world. He shouted, "Hey, Monochromon! We're over here! Come get us!"

"Are you insane?" I yelled as I dove away from another of the Monochromon's tackles. The digimon skidded to a stop. Good for the city, bad for me.

"No, but I do like chocolate..." DemiVeemon said dreamily.

"What's getting the Monochromon's attention have anything to do with getting chocolate?"

"Well, I dunno," DemiVeemon replied. He jumped out of my bag and digivolved into Veemon, smacking his hands together. "Time to box some Monochromon!"

"That isn't even good enough to be a catchy phrase..."

"I know!" Veemon yelled cheerfully as he ran towards the Monochromon. All the while, he was yelling his favourite battle cry, "Chocolate!"

"Wait! Hey! Hold up!" I protested against Veemon's rash actions, but he paid me no mind. He kept on running towards the Monochromon like a lunatic. I ran off after him, convinced that he would be in seriously big trouble.

The Triceratops digimon roared and ran towards Veemon as well. Darn, bad news. I thought for sure Veemon would've been hit when, in fact, Veemon jumped in time and landed on the Monochromon's head. He then laid punches here and there and I foolishly cheered him on until I realized all his attacks were in vain; the Monochromon's armour was way too strong. The overgrown lizard tried shaking Veemon off of its head but Veemon held on to its horn firmly for dear life.

Mentally, I told myself Veemon wouldn't be able to get off on his own and, as foolish as I am, I believed myself. I ran towards the Monochromon and joined Veemon on its head. I lost my footing for a second, however, and almost fell but I mimicked Veemon and held onto the huge horn for support. The Monochromon tried scaring us off by running around at full speed. This Monochromon should have its own transportation service. Its motto could be 'Hold on for dear life and you'll be there in no time!'.

Before I registered what was happening, the Monochromon angled its head upwards with force. Veemon and I lost grip of its horn and we were sent soaring into the sky. At least this was better than flying straight into a building. Worry shrouded my thoughts as I saw the Monochromon open its mouth to devour us. Putting aside all other thoughts, yuck. Its mouth wasn't huge but it was big enough to eat us both. But there _was_ one thing good about being tossed up here: I had a bird's eye view of the entire district. Okay, random, but it's worth pointing out.

"I hate heights! Especially when I'm about to be eaten!" Veemon yelled as we started falling back down.

"It's _your_ fault the Monochromon came after us in the first place!" I argued.

"Well, it would've come for you sooner or later!" Veemon retaliated.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" I know quarreling in this situation is useless but... well, these things are what we call 'imminent', I guess.

Before our argument took place to the next level (possibly in the Monochromon's stomach), a digimon swooped out of nowhere and scooped the two of us up. The digimon's wings flapped at several hundred kilometres per hour (I'm actually just guessing randomly since my mind's too messed up to think straight right now). The digimon zipped away from the battlefield. It flew so fast the wind buffeted my face. I could also see Veemon's mouth fluttering wide open.

I tilted my head upwards to get a glimpse of our saviour. Though the wind blurred my vision almost completely and worsened my judgement by a couple hundred times, I realized with a start that it was Dorugamon. He set me down on a street not far form where the action was taking place. In fact, I could still see the Monochromon searching around for me in confusion, thinking 'Where did my prey go?'. But more importantly, he set me down in front of Selene.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Not that I'm complaining, but shouldn't you be at the stadium right about now?"

"Shouldn't _you_ be at the stadium? As a new student, it's important you give a good first impression."

Selene gave a small laugh. "I was at school the whole morning. The principal wanted me to fill out some forms. He kept apologizing for no real reason even if he probably didn't feel the same way. If I have to fill out another stupid form, I'm gonna' lose it."

"Well, that's Saikou," I replied with a smile.

"Can you two discuss about school later and focus on the more important matters?" Dorugamon asked.

"Yeah, like finding some chocolate!" Veemon exclaimed. His eyes were shining with greed and his mouth was watery.

"He meant the battle," Selene said.

"Gee, you think?" I rolled my eyes in Veemon's place.

"Well, it's not my fault Veemon's brain needs some serious looking at," Selene argued.

"And that's _my_ fault?" I asked, straining my eyelids.

"I didn't say that," Selene replied.

"But you meant it," I countered.

We were cut off by a loud roar. Then, we realized the Monochromon was heading straight for us. There was barely any chance we'd get out of the way in time to avoid being trampled. Luckily, our digimon had been paying attention to the battle and were smart enough to get us out of harm's way. Dorugamon lifted Selene into the air whereas Veemon tackled me from the side. Ouch. Having a winged digimon partner is awesome... At least one won't get injured by his or her partner when trying to get out of the way.

The Monochromon slowed to a stop not too far away and turned for another charge. I only had enough time to grab Veemon, who hadn't recovered from the tackle (he can head-butt a giant without being fazed but he can't tackle me without feeling dizzy?), and roll to one side. The Monochromon ran past us so quickly I could feel the force of the wind brush against my skin. For an enormous digimon, that Monochromon was really fast. As the Monochromon attempted another charge, a metal ball hit it on the head, giving me and Veemon a chance to escape.

I looked on at the raging battle between Dorugamon and the Monochromon from afar. Dorugamon had placed Selene down a few metres from the warzone and was now busy firing metal ball after metal ball at the crazed digimon. His attacks were fruitless as the Monochromon's tough hide repelled the metal balls with ease. The Monochromon was just basically standing there waiting for Dorugamon to tire himself out before moving in for the kill.

"Dorugamon!" Selene called out, cupping her hands around her mouth to intensify her voice. "Aim for his eyes and mouth, not his skin or armour!"

It was amazing Dorugamon could even hear her considering his fatigue and distance, but he changed his attack pattern. Instead of tiring himself out with an array of attackks, Dorugamon circled the Monochromon. Whenever an opportunity persented itself, he would nail a bull's eye in the lizard's... well, eye. However, he made the mistake of flying too close and was swiped by the digimon's tail. Dorugamon crashed into a car. It didn't blow up, thank goodness. Instead, it turned turtle, ending with Dorugamon being squashed under the vehicle.

"Dorugamon!" Selene cied out. She immediately rushed to help her partner out... somehow.

"Let's go, Veemon!" I commanded. Veemon seemed all too happy to oblige.

The two of us ran towards the insane digimon with no actual aim in mind, yelling to attract its attention. I didn't know what to say nor did I care for that matter. I just yelled. Veemon, on the other hand, had his words all ready. It was his battlecry, "Chocolate!"

Veemon punched the Monochromon's horn and the Monochromon was pushed back an inch. Just a single freaking inch! But that's better than nothing. I delivered a roundhouse kick to the digimon's face, only to regret it moments later. Maybe I should've taken to heart Will's advice about not simply jumping into battles recklessly. The Monochromon sent the two of us flying with a single head-butt. For the record, Veemon's head-butt is way more painful.

The Monochromon then charged at me again (why is it always me?). I grabbed Veemon and got ready to throw him out of the way. He protested strongly and only subdued his rebellious actions after I explained to him my fifty-fifty success rate plan. I was the main target so the overgrown lizard didn't mind having Veemon out of the way. When only a few metres separated us, Veemon slammed it from the side with his head. Of course, this wasn't enough to defeat it, but the speed it was going at had imbalanced it and it was knocked over.

Angered by our actions, the Monochromon quickly got up and raised its tail to slam us both away. I closed my eyes and braced for impact but the hit never came. Slowly peeking through my eyelids, I saw Dorugamon resisting the Monochromon's tail in front of us. Thr ground cracked under his feet under the extreme strength both digimon were exerting. It wasn't until he yelled "Go!" that we remembered we had to run.

Veemon and I scrambled over to Selene, who looked worried for her partner's safety. She held her hands to her heart, silently hoping that Dorugamon would be alright. Even so, I could clearly see that she was searching for the Monochromon's weakness. We watched the fight from a distance, except for Veemon who went around to look for signs of chocolate.

After a while, Dorugamon let go of the tail quickly and jumped backwards fast enough to evade the massive tail slam. However, before he flew off, the Monochromon wrapped its tail around his leg, locking him in place. The two were caught in a fierce game of monster tug-of-war. The Monochromon worked on pulling Dorugamon down while the latter tried either escaping or pulling the Monochromon along with him.

"Veemon, latch onto my hand and let go only when I say so!" I commanded. Veemon obeyed without question. I admired the loyalty and trust he was portraying, even if my plan could backfire and leave him hurt and vulnerable.

"What are you doing?" Selene's eye's widened.

"I have absolutely no idea." I swung round and round, building up some momentum. I started wobbling out of dizziness and it took a lot of willpwer not to lose my balance. Finally, I yelled, "Now!"

Veemon let go and went spinning towards the Monochromon like a frisbee. The bad news was that he might dizzy himself till he wouldn't be able to execute the plan. I douted he even knew what the plan was but I had faith in him... a little, at least. The good news was that he was headed straight for the Monochromon's head and the latter was too focused on Dorugamon to notice. Veemon crashed into its head severely before proceeding to deliver punch after punch and head-butt after head-butt.

Sadly, none of the attacks worked against the tough hide. Sure Veemon's crash dazed the Monochromon for a second, but Dorugamon still failed to escape. We would need more than regular kicks and punches to get through this digimon's defence. Unfortunately, that was all we had: regular kicks and punches. I tried formulating a plan but my brain failed to come up with anything brilliant. Selene was also awfully quiet and calm despite her partner being in trouble.

After some time, the Monochromon triumphed the game and pulled Dorugamon downwards with immense strength. Dorugamon degenerated, no more posing as a threat. The monster proceeded to charge at me without bothering to shake Veemon off its head. Great. Just great. I ran to my right but tripped on some pebbles. I thought I'd be pancaked when Selene tackled me and sent us both sprawling.

"Thanks," I said.

"You're welcome," she answered. "Next time, you should- Watch out!"

She pointed her finger in the direction of the Monochromon, but I didn't follow her gaze (for reasons I'm going to keep confidential). At first I thought she was giving me advice, telling me to look out for future attacks. But, when I looked at the Monochromon, I sprang to my feet immediately. Veemon was flying through the air. Apparently, the Monochromon shook Veemon off and slammed him towards us with its tail. I planned to catch my partner at all costs.

"Aah!" Veemon shouted in fear.

I jumped in time to catch him. The two of us were thrown backwards by the force. I didn't really care about that, though. Right now, I was worried about Veemon and Dorumon. Why? Well, the Monochromon separated the Dorumon from the rest of us and the Monochromon could squash him anytime. Selene, filled with frustration, tried thinking of a Dorumon rescue plan without the Monochromon noticing. In my opinion, that's pretty much impossible.

"Stop!" a sudden voice called out. Weird, it sounded familiar.

The sudden call took everyone present – the Monochromon included – by surprise. We all looked towards the base of a water fountain where a kid about my age stood. He had his hands crossed and his pose was filled with bravery and courage. As I was either about to yell for him to run or tell myself he was minced meat, my heart skipped a beat. I recognized the kid as Seishirou. You know, the Seishirou from school that acted cool all the time to get attention? Last I checked, he had more than forty fan girls.

He reached for something on his belt and strapped it to his right wrist before holding it out towards the Monochromon. A TransVice! As I might've stated before, the crystal embedded in it was blue in colour and it shimmered with a magnificent glow. Ugh, why didn't I suspect he was a digidestined before? But, the one weird thing was that he had no digimon partner anywhere near him. Maybe he was going to goof off and make the Monochromon laugh to death.

"It's about time he arrived," Selene said, a small smile playing on her lips as she stood up.

"You know him? I mean, like _know_ him know him?" I asked, standing up as well. I was careful not to drop Veemon who was lying limp in my arms.

"Yeah, I've bumped into him once or twice," Selene replied. "He's helped me out with digimon problems more than a dozen times."

I looked at Seishirou, thinking what he would do. He stared the Monochromon down as he traced his left fingers over the crystal of the TransVice. Weird enough, his was the only one I've seen so far that had two wings jutting out and had straps. The two wings shot open and released a speedy yet steady stream of light which materialized into a miniature vortex in midair some two hundred metres above ground level. It looked a lot like a blackhole.

"Coredramon..." Selene murmured. "Looks like Seishirou's not taking it easy on this digimon at all."

A figure shot down form the vortex in a bullet of light and hit the ground with a large and explosive shockwave, creating a crater where it landed (kinda' like a meteor). The crouching figure stood up and I got a good long look at it.

The digimon was dragon-like with two bat-like wings extending out of its back. Its skin was of a not-so-dark-yet-still-dark-blue while its underside was grayish-white in colour. Its claws were of a pure grayish-white as well, shining with extreme durability. They may even be enough to slice right through the Monochromon's armour. Long, thin, purplish red spikes lined its neck down to its tail. There was also a red horn on it nose. All in all, this was by far the most dragon-like and fierce-looking digimon I'd ever encountered.

"Coredramon!" the creature yelled.

"Wow," I murmured in astonishhment. I took a glance at Selene, who was standing to my left. Then, I returned my gaze to Coredramon. "Coredramon?"

"Coredramon," Selene confirmed.

Even though he was no larger than Dorugamon, he seemed to be much tougher. Coredramon's aura itself convinced me that he was capable of doing anything and by anything, I mean _anything_, including take on that oversized lizard of a Monochromon. In addition, the aura he radiated consisted of power unlike any I've ever felt before. I didn't dare prophesize the full extent of his abilities, but I knew the Monochromon was in trouble.

Coredramon looked at the Monochromon who roared in anger at the new and unwelcome company. As the Monochromon ran towards its new target, Coredramon simply spun on the spot and sent the Monochromon sliding a few metres back. Awesome. Then,Coredramon easily and effortlessly (at least he made it look effortless) stopped the Monochromon's head-butt by catching its horn with his claws. Pure strength.

I thought they would be caught in a deadlock for sometime. I was proved wrong when Coredramon knocked the Monochromon back with a strong push, slightly cracking its horn in the process. Coredramon must've been really strong based on what he could do to the Monochromon considering its size and weight.

"End it now, Coredramon," Seishirou commanded.

"Blue Flare Death!" Coredramon yelled. He opened his mouth wide and blue flames emerged from thin air, gathering into a dense fire ball in his mouth. Coredramon then let the entire attack go with a yell. The Monochromon was still whole after the fight, but it was lying on its side, unmoving.

Seishirou walked towards us and smiled softly. "You two okay?" I don't know why he was smiling. The only reason I could think of was that he was basking in his own glory.

"Yeah, but Dorumon-" Selene's sentence was cut short when Coredramon landed beside Seishirou with Dorumon safely in his arms. Selene retrieved Dorumon and cradled him in her arms while thanking the towering dragon digimon.

"You're a digidestined...?" I asked.

"Yes, but based on what Selene said about you, I would've thought you to be smarter," Seishirou groaned as he rolled his eyes.

Beside him, Coredramon degenerated with a blinding flash of light. His new form was still dragon-like, only less war-suited than before. The spikes lining his back were now gone and so was the horn on his snout. Instead, he had two red antlers positioned so nicely on his head that Rudolph the Reindeer would've been jealous. He also had two bat-like wings which were red in colour. Instead of the dark blue skin he once possessed, he now had greenish blue skin.

"Shouldn't we do anything about the Monochromon?" I asked. "I mean, don't digimon disintegrate after they're defeated or something?"

Seishirou looked at me with eyes that said 'You are such a newbie'. "Dracomon, explain."

"No need," Selene interrupted. "Consider this repaying you for saving us."

"I never get to determine what I want as payment," Seishirou crossed his arms and sulked. I'm not criticizing him. He really sulked. It's hard believing the cool Seishirou sulk but yeah, he sulked.

Selene turned to me. "Digimon do disintegrate into bits and pieces of data after they're defeated. However, strong digimon take a little longer than others because of their strong exterior or interior. Don't worry, it'll just take a few seconds or minutes for the Monochromon to poof away."

Veemon yanwed and I dropped him (by accident... I think... I guess...). It might've seemed mean but I didn't see the harm in doing so (not that I agreed doing it was right). Veemon wasn't the least hurt. Lying on the floor, he blinked open his eyes and stood up. "That was a nice nap," he muttered as he stretched.

"Nap?" Dracomon asked, finally opening his mouth for reasons that didn't include fire breathing. "You were knocked out."

"Who cares?" Veemon replied with a hint of drowziness in his voice. "Any chocolates nearby?"

"That's quite a digimon you've got there," Seishirou said.

Embarassed as I was, I didn't know what to say. Lucky for me, Selene came to my rescue. "At least he's not as stoic and disciplined," she said with a small laugh.

"Maybe my Veemon even knows how to have fun," I joked.

"Fun? Digimon are comrades whom we fight alongside to defend the human world and the digital world from any hostile beings who try to disrupt peace and harmony between the two worlds," Seishirou lectured. He said it smoothly like he'd momemorized it. "We treat them as friends, comrades, and family. By doing so, we bring out their deepest potential which we may use to ensure the safety of everyone.

"Well-" Selene started.

"However, no digimon's been known to embarrass his or her partner in front of others," Seishirou continued.

I don't know what came over me but I replied, "Well, give Veemon a trophy 'cause he's the first in the record bood." Being disrespectful isn't what you'd call a record... I stared Seishirou in the eye, which was intimidating considering he had red irises that seemed to pierce your soul.

"Wow!" Selene exclaimed, dramatically looking at her wrist which held no watch. "Look at the time! We better hurry to the stadium if we want to catch the game!" Why do I get the feeling she was doing this just to avoid Seishirou and I from breaking out into a fight?

"But-" Seishirou protested.

"Game. Now."

The scary look in Selene's eyes forced the two of us to oblige unconditionally. Besides, she had a point. I might not have a watch with me but my gut was telling me the game was well into the second half. Yes, we'd been fighting the Monochromon _that_ long. If I miss out on the chance to diss Yuki's team in public, I will hunt down whoever sent the Monochromon after me and make him or her pay.

DemiVeemon degenerated and I forced him into my bag. Selene carried an unconscious Dorumon in her arms, tenderly caring for his limp body. Seishirou didn't have to do anything about his partner digimon. Dracomon could easily pass off as a statue with his stoic and unnerving personality. Maybe we can use him as a money-making machine. You know, by doing one of those 'moving statue' tricks they always show at the park. It's easy money.

The three of us (or is that four including Dracomon?) started out for the stadium. A sudden pull in my gut stopped me in my tracks. Ahead of me, Selene and Seishirou looked like they were racing each other for their lives. Both looked intent on winning. Seishirou was leading by a few inches, though.

I turned back and took a look. The Monochromon was still lying there amidst the destruction we had caused. The damage wasn't minor but it wouldn't be what-I-would-call 'too much' either. Just a few damaged stores, a few craters in the tarred raods, and half a dozen fallen beams here and there. The authorities should have everything back to normal in a few hours (yes, they're _that_ efficient).

I sighed. I was about to turn and join my friends in the race which I would evidently lose, when all of a sudden my eyes caught sight of a slight movement. The Monochromon! It wasn't beaten yet! I opened my mouth to call for Seishirou and Selene (okay, I admit I'm totally useless against the overgrown lizard) but they were no where in sight. Ugh, just great. They'd already raced off.

I instinctively unzipped my bag and pulled DemiVeemon out. He groaned and complained but shut right up once he saw the Monochromon standing and furiously shaking its head.

"Not again!" he complained. I had to agree. Not even _my_ luck could've been this bad, right?

"Heads up!" I said as the Monochromon charged at us.

DemiVeemon got into a fighting pose. It might be idiotic to do so without first digivolving but there just wasn't enough time to do so. If he digivolved, he'd be slammed hard. If he didn't digivolve, there was still a chance to retaliate in time, even if it was futile. You gotta' admit Veemon – or is that _Demi_Veemon – has some brains to think this all through in such short notice.

Before we felt the impact, help arrived. And thank goodness it came in the form of a familiar figure.

"Rock Soul!"

A big ball of flame flew out from behind us and erupted in the Monochromon's face. When I say big, I mean _big_. The fireball was easily a metre in diameter. The fireball engulfed its target's face in flames. The Monochromon struggled to shake off the flames or extinguish them by slamming its head into the road. However, nothing worked. The pain was also intensifying by the second. If I'm not wrong, even if the Monochromon's armour is amazingly durable, the heat would also radiate to its body, which can't be comfortable.

Veemon and I turned around and saw Shoutmon. He was standing on a car with his mike in his right hand, posing as a super hero. The only accessories missing were his mask, cape, and fancy clothing. His zig-zag mouth smiled at us brightly and there was a small twinkle in his eyes that seemed new. I was sure I had never seen that twinkle before now. Drake's absence only further strengthened my conclusion: Shoutmon had turned over a new leaf.

"Hey, Hiroto!" Shoutmon called out cheerfully. It's good hearing him like this instead of his previous angsty self. "Need some help?"

I smiled and he got the message (I seem to be communicating a lot with silent language today). If Shoutmon was here to help, I was more than glad to accept it. Even DemiVeemon, who liked tagging up with only me in battles, enlightened at the sight of his once-enemy now-friend. DemiVeemon leapt up onto the car beside Shoutmon (how'd he jump so high?) and digivolved.

That's when it all happened.

I got a slight tug in my gut before a flame lit up within my chest. Yes, it was the feeling which always resulted in me doing risky stunts that sane people would try to avoid. Somehow, the feeling was different than before. The fiery feeling was burning with more passion than before, like Shoutmon's presence was somehow affecting me. Mentally, I could tell the three of us were thinking of exactly the same plan. There was no need for talk.

I grabbed Veemon with my right hand while I held onto Shoutmon with my left. They didn't protest against my actions. Then, I started spinning round and round and round. Veemon and Shoutmon were obviously getting dizzy, but how'd you think I'm feeling? No, don't answer that. After about ten seconds, I launched the two of them into the sky. I stumbled on the ground a little after that, trying to regain my balance.

High in midair, Shoutmon and Veemon were busy with their own... well, preparations. Veemon dove in for a diving head-butt. Shoutmon then released a Rock Soul at Veemon which engulfed the latter in bright red flames. At first, I thought that he'd gone nuts. Then I realized the flaes weren't meant to hurt Veemon at all; they were meant to intensify his attack.

Shoutmon helped out again by screaming into his mike, creating a torturously loud screeching sound. The Monochromon shook its head to keep the disturbing noise out of its brain. Glass shattered into tiny pieces all around. The sonic waves also propelled Veemon further, boosting his speed and giving him momentum. Best thing was: I was not affected by the attack.

The Monochromon, busy shaking its head like a loony, didn't see Veemon coming down at him from above. Veemon crashed into it in a ball of flame with immense strength and power. The Monochromon, as expected, burst into bits and pieces of data. Well, I did tell you it would only take one more attack, didn't I? I was right.

"Great job!" I congratulated as I ran towards Veemon and Shoutmon. The duo were now trading high-fives.

"That was so cool how I went on fire and smashed into the Monochromon!" Veemon exclaimed, trading another high-five with Shoutmon.

"Yeah! I didn't even know I could do that!" Shoutmon agreed.

"So, what happened to Drake?" I asked Shoutmon.

"Drake?" Shoutmon asked quizzically. "I never went back to meet him. After you saved me that day, I went walking around sorting things out in my mind."

"How'd you find us?" I asked.

"Who cares!" Veemon interrupted. "Let's celebrate by buying chocolate!"

Shoutmon ignored Veemon's outburst. Luckily, the former didn't notice. "I started searching for the two of you around ten hours ago."

I did the math. It was now eleven. Ten hours ago meant... "You started searching for us since around one o'clock?" I asked in disbelief, widening my eyes. Shoutmon nodded. "Don't you know that most people'll be asleep by then? There's no way you can find anyone that late at night."

"Really?" Shoutmon asked quizzically. I guess he was filled with so much 'passion' that it sort-of doubled as a back-up energy source so he could stay awake twenty-four seven. Say, he would be a great night guard. "No wonder the streets were all empty while I walked around."

"Hello? Who am I? Invisible-mon?" Veemon asked. "Let's get some chocolate! Maybe they sell some at that... what was it called... uh, _stadium_ you were heading to!" Veemon urged cheerfully.

"Yeah! Let's-" I stopped short of what I was saying. "Oh no! The stadium! I've gotta get there or I'll lose the chance to annoy Yuki in public!" It's true. I don't get a lot of permission to irritate her and get away with it. Heck, I believe Rinji will pull my head off if I get the crowd roaring against Yuki.

Veemon degenerated immediately and I instantly placed him in my bag. However, Shoutmon didn't do anything. He just stood there. I doubt they both could've fit into my bag. DemiVeemon already took up most of the space in there; forcing them both in might tear my bag apart. Correction, the two of them in there _will_ tear my bag apart. I didn't see any good ideas coming and I was running short of time to watch Yuki lose (ooh, I'm optimistic today). Great, just another thing to add to my list of misfortunes.

"Are we moving already?" Shoutmon put on a quizzical face. I nodded. "Well then, here. This might help."

He handed me a small phone-like device which was coloured red. It was roughly five by three inches at least. There were no decorations on it, nor were there buttons to press. If this really was a phone, then it has got to be the most ancient phone around. All it had were screws here and there and a screen which reflected the sunlight. I stared at the plain device in my hands for a moment before asking Shoutmon what it was.

My ears perked up at his explanation. "It's a digivice."

"A digivice? Seriously?" I stared at the stupid-looking device in my hand. Not to be rude, but it was pretty stupid-looking. Besides, weren't digivices supposed to be pentagonal in shape with a crystal embedded in the middle? "Are you sure this is a digivice?"

"It's an artificial one, but yeah," Shoutmon continued. "It's just something my friends at home created so that my human partner could carry me around with ease."

"I wish they created something like this for Veemon..." I muttered. "So how do you use this thing?"

"Just point it at me," Shoutmon replied with glee. I did so, and Shoutmon burst into a million pieces of data.

"Woah!" I exclaimed. For a second, I thought I'd just destroyed Shoutmon. Then, the 'digivice' screen glowed faintly and attracted the many bits of data into it. "Hey, it works!"

"Of course it does," Shoutmon's voice replied from inside the screen. I couldn't see anything but my own reflection in the screen. However, the screen blinked with every word he said, like he was trying to show that he was in there.

"Awesome!"

"Hey, what am I? Melted chocolate?" DemiVeemon interrupted, opening the zipper of my bag and feeling annoyed at being left out. "Let's get to the studio-"

"Stadium," Shoutmon corrected, making the screen blink white once.

"Yeah, stadium, whatever," DemiVeemon shrugged it off. "Let's just go and get some chocolate!"

"Alright, let's go!"

* * *

><p>How was it? I know it's not really my best work in this story. In my opinion, my best work is also Chapter 2, where there was a lot of action in the Hiroto-and-Veemon-versus-Drake-and-Shoutmon battle. That's just personal taste.<p>

About this chapter, the thing that took up the most time is the crowd dialogue. I have trouble controlling crowd dialogues. Oh my goodness, I'd better fix this fast 'cause the eight current digidestined are going to be together for quite a while later in the series. If anyone has any tips on controlling crowd dialogues, please share them with me. I badly need them.

Once again, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the next chapter. Please read and review!


	10. A Miracle Takes Three

Pokemon fan 1991 Not logged in  
><em>That was awesome work<br>There were a few mistake but i love it. so will Shoutmon digivole or Xros? And who will replace Shoutmon?  
><em>Thanks. If you see any mistakes, feel free to state them in your review so I can correct them. Who will replace Shoutmon? Well, keep reading, because he's gonna' be in this chapter!

ThirdTimeztheCharm  
><em>Congratulations! You officially have the best story I found in the Digimon homepage! I like Hiroto, he reminds me of a Japanese, aale, Matilda. However, I did notice a few grammar mistakes, some sentence fragments, and even points where the narration was weak. I appreciate Hiroto's sarcasm though, it's definitely refreshing! One more thing that bothered me is that Hiroto, Rinji, Mai, and Yuki are all Japanese names, but Lance, Dylan, and Minnie are all English names, are they foreign? Just curious.<br>I can't wait to read on, hopefully there is room for me to submit a character! :)  
><em>Thanks! About the grammar mistakes, sentence fragments, and weak narrating, do you mind stating them? And if you can add in how I could fix them, even better!  
>Hiroto's sarcasm is just my way of trying to light up certain moments. I'm glad you liked it.<br>I'm not going to pre-determine everything for the readers. I'm going to let your imagination fly and handle some of the work. For example, Lance, Dylan and Minnie _could_ be, as you've said, foreign. Or, they could merely be dub names.

ThirdTimeztheCharm  
><em>Woah...this was intense! I really hate Drake, what a jerkface. Again, Hiroto's sassy realism is appreciated, but it sometimes make him seem a bit socially awkward. Some confusion was had in this chapter as to what happened with the silver-haired girl, who I'm assuming was a digimon-related being, and Drake's gang. Drake's a sword fighter? Is his sword magical, because I'm pretty sure Veemon could break it. There was some grammatical mistakes, I encourage you to have a friend re-read your writings before you post them online, if you want, I'd help you. I'll keep on reading!<br>_Intense? I know, right?  
>Oh, right! I forgot to put in Hiroto checking in on how the silver-haired girl was doing... but after being through a life-or-death situation, some people get a little self-centered. Hiroto called to check on <em>Yuna<em> because she's his close friend.  
>Drake's reviewer, pokemon fan 1991, wanted to make Drake's sword immensely powerful. Of course, if Veemon has such a hard head, he'd definitely have broken the sword. However, there <em>is<em> a reason I'm making his sword super powerful.  
>And what are the gramatical mistakes, might I ask? You can list them in your reviews if you want to. Plus, I <em>do<em> have a friend re-read my work, at least those before this chapter. Still, you can pitch in and help anytime.

kitefire_  
>Heres my character's profile hope you like it and please tell me waht you think kay :3<br>Name:Sabrina Williams  
>Age:16<br>Appearance:Black Hair Shoulder length with a pink ribbon in the back,greens eyes,petite,A pink short sleeved t-shirt with a yellow star in the front,Light blue short denim skirt,knee high white socks,light brown short high heel boots,wearing a silver pendent around her neck.  
>Personality::Kind,Caring,Friendly,smart,shy,stands up for others if needed to,like to help others,a girlie-girl.<br>Likes:reading,singing,animals,stuffed animals,art,helping,shopping  
><em>_Dislike:buillies,animal cruilty,the dark  
>Pros:studing,relieable,smart<br>Cons:sports  
>Partner:Guilmon<br>personality:Protective of Sabrina,navie,friendly,playful,serious in Battle,likes to eat  
>Likes:eating,playing games,video games<br>Dislikes:girly stuff  
><em>Your OC's actually quite well-groomed for the story. But, do you want your OC to have a crest? You might want to list a few, as some others might be taken. An extra tip: just choose whichever crest you like. It doesn't really affect your digidestined or her digimon much.  
>Thanks for the OC submission.<p>

ThirdTimeztheCharm  
><em>You need to get rid of all of these parentheses, what you are stating in them can be said outside. Save parentheses for author's notes.<br>We already knew about Yuna's father, so mentioning it again was a little awkward, but not unnecessary. I'm not really up to date on Japanese culture, so you may want to specify for readers like myself what a meehoon stall is.  
>Hiroto didn't crash their date though, are you referring to a previous event before the events of the story? A small anecdote here might be refreshing.<br>Gasoline? Laughter? I'm confused...  
>practicing not practising.<br>Pride should be lower case, and the previous period should be turned into a colon.  
>Why are none of them talking about the incident yesterday? That seems a little more important than their soccer match...<br>I really hate Rinji :p  
>"I saw Lance and Yuna, still sitting at the tables, but now their tupperwares were emptied of their contents. Lance and Yuna were chatting, no doubt about daily news, though I couldn't help but stare in amazement. They were quite fond of practising their communication, given the chance, or as everyone else likes to call it, their 'chemistry'. I didn't like being a wet blanket, and so I fought the urge to drop in on them ninja-style."<br>This is a confusing paragraph, not only because of the misspellings, but also because you have a giant run-on sentence at the end, and his simile doesn't make sense.  
>DemiVeemon doesn't have nails. You also referred to him as Veemon before this, so I am confused as to which form he is in right now.<br>I also really hate Yuki :P, but I am liking the Yuna/Lance pairing. However, I don not like how wimpy Yuna got in Yuki's presence! She was ready to fight to the death for somebody yesterday, and now she's shaking in her metaphorical boots!  
>I would have liked a brief housekeeping montage...<br>You didn't mention that he had brought Veemon with him, so it was a bit unusual when Veemon suddenly appeared.  
>Also, consistency with Veemon's name! Also, seldom seems like a big word for Veemon to use.<br>Wait, Hiroto is fighting Airdramon? Good thing this doesn't have to make much sense, because Airdramon could kill him! Also, Airdramon is usually a good digimon, just saying.  
>I feel as though an awful amount of time would be consumed fighting a dragon monster, just a thought.<br>Soccer, in a football stadium?  
>I admire his dedication to his friends and their team...but the boy just fought a giant dragon, I think he deserves to be a little self centered.<br>His friends? Kind of jerkfaces, poor Hiroto, everyone is such a jerk in his life :P  
><em>_I kind of have a love/hate relationship with Hiroto's cocky attitude. It's nice to not have him be so depressing, but his life sucks, no offense, so it's also a bit unrealistic.  
><em>Wow, I can sense irritation in this review.  
>The parentheses are <em>Hiroto's<em> personal thoughts on the matter. The author's notes are for what I have to say, not Hiroto.  
>I didn't actually see the problem in mentioning Yuna's father again. A meehoon stall is not Japanese. Meehoon is kind of like mee or noodles. Sorry, but I'm not sure how to explain it.<br>I said Hiroto _dared_ to crash their date. He didn't actually crash any of their previous ones. He also mentioned, _'Why would I want to sabotage a friend?_", meaning he's never actually done it before.  
>The gasoline and laughter were actually supposed to support one another. Dylan was snoring, so everyone was struggling not to laugh. If the cooks joined in the laughter, they would pay less attention to their cooking, thus resulting in a possible fire involving gasoline.<br>Practicing? Practising? I've done research on this particular topic several times. Both can be used. It's just whether it's British or American. I'll try to standardize my writing next time.  
>Well, none of them are talking about the previous day's events because the current day's events are more... rushed. Besides, they've been training to be Saikou's image for a long time so it would be quite disappointing to lose to another team, wouldn't it?<br>Yeah, I hate Rinji too. :)  
>I don't see anything confusing about it. The words are certainly not spelled wrong.<br>Whoops! Sorry about the nails problem. I'll get to it as soon as possible.  
>Yuna maybe tough but traumatic experiences can lead to a kid being scarred for life. It can turn the toughest men into weak wimps. I'll see what to do with Yuna's trauma in the future, whether she recovers from it, is still traumatized, or to just leave it at that.<br>Sorry about the housekeeping montage! I must've been so rushed at that moment I forgot to add it in. However, I'm not going to change it this late in the story. You can just let your imagination fly and decide what you want the house to look like.  
>I have got to stop mixing soccer and football. I'm guessing you're American, so 'football' there isn't soccer. Don't worry, I'll try stopping myself from intertwining those two words.<br>I guess Hiroto's friends were actually a bit selfish at that part. However, it's not everyday they get defeated by Yuki, especially in their field of expertise: soccer. Moreover, if I'm not wrong, Hiroto never mentioned anything regarding Airdramon, so his friends don't know he'd been fighting a murderous killing dragon.  
>Hiroto's life sucks, that I agree with. :)<br>Thanks for the long review. It really helped me spot several mistakes.

pokemon fan 1991  
><em>awesome work!<br>can I make Drake sister as an oc  
><em>Sure, feel free. I might spin that out into a mini-story, too. :)

Super g  
><em>geez,hope yuki looses and fail in life, all his siblings in fact,there should be abnsolutly NO reason to act like assholes to your brother, and if you have some sort of problem,calmy discuss it with them in a civil manner.<br>"WOW, look at the time!"*laughs*i love it when people do that! Like they 4real gotta go somewhere,it's even better when they don't have a  
>Man, i'm not gonna like, it was a WHILE last you update..but whatever, you update when you can.<em>.  
>I have a totally logical – or maybe not-so-logical – explanation for the hatred they feel.<br>Haha, I also love it when that happens.  
>You're not gonna' like? Sorry, but I don't understand that last sentence. Yeah, I'll update when I can. :D<p>

Super g  
><em>ok sorry, i just noticed i have typos out the azz.<br>Absolutly(I think,i can't spell)  
>Calmly.<br>Not gonna LIE  
>I should revise before i submit least i corrected myself so it dosn't look like a monkey typed it.<br>_Whew! Thanks for correcting that! I almost got the wrong message because of those typos, but we all make mistakes. :) Fanfiction should add an additional word-checker to their site. Haha. :D

ThirdTimeztheCharm  
><em>Ok, so another decent chapter! yay! But here's my main problem with this one: the flashback style narrative you use is very interesting, but sometimes asking the reader questions gets annoying. I feel involved in the story, but I don't want to be on a tour down memory lane, I want to be in the action, you know what I mean? Anyway, I can't wait to read more, and please let me know if you want anymore characters!<br>_Sorry about annoying you. But, the whole reason I'm writing this in _first-person_ is because I want to bring the readers as close to the story itself as possible.  
>Like I've said, it's not whether I want the characters or not. If you have one, you can submit it, and I'll decide when that character will make an appearance.<p>

ThirdTimeztheCharm  
><em>Yayy! Epic victory for Hiroto and Veemon! Although, I was a little disappointed in this chapter, it's the filler zone, I get it. Anyway, keep doin' what your doin.<br>_Yeah, not much to contribute in that chapter, huh? Well, it's just a filler, so there's not much action.  
>Thanks for the encouragement.<p>

CrossoverxToxThexDarkxSide  
><em>Yeah update!<br>I saw a few things, like curious spelled curios, but with the Mobile site I can't find/fix them.  
>Wait... curious is spelled 'curios'? I always thought it was spelled with the 'u'. I hope you like this chapter, even though it's really really really late. :)<br>I meant...  
>You had curios, and you meant to spell curious. XD<br>When is the next OC joining the fun?  
><em>Haha, thanks! Yeah, I can't even upload stories with the mobile site. Fanfiction should really allow us to do that. You'll have to read on to find those OCs! :D

ThirdTimeztheCharm  
><em>Again, a relatively well done chapter. I literally laughed out loud at DemiVeemon in this one! I am beginning to appreciate Hiroto's innocence, and I am curious to see what his power is. I like Selene a lot too!<br>However, there are several grammar mistakes, and you weren't very clear on the whole DemiVeemon/Veemon thing, and what is recess or canteens? I know the definition of them, but I am curious as to what you are using them for.  
>I also am not really feeling Seishirou!<br>_Haha, thanks!  
>If there are mistakes, you can just state them there. For the 'recess or canteens' term, I don't fully understand it so I'll just skip it temporarily.<br>What do you mean by 'feeling Seishirou'?

Tendou Souji  
><em>Yo. It's been two months, has it not? I seriously thought you had abandoned this story but when I checked my mail and found out that this fic has been updated, my heart soared to the heavens. (Not really. I was just very happy)<br>Ah, yes. The Three Demons get some more screentime. And how do they make the best out of it? I know, why don't we all discretely but not so discretely insult Hiroto and lower his self-esteem? Gotta love them. (Again, not really)  
>I love the battle with the Monochromon; mainly because my OC was in it but I also liked it when Shoutmon and Veemon teamed up. The way you described Coredramon's appearance and fighting prowess was perfect. I really thought that Coredramon was Ultraman Agul. The only thing you could have done to perfect the Ultraman Agul persona was to have Coredramon do some collateral damage to his surroundings as well en route to defeating the Monochromon.<br>Nice to see Hiroto getting a Digivice, despite the fact that it PALES in comparison to the TransVice. Regardless of this fact, I think Hiroto would rather have an old model of Digivice that not have one at all.  
>Regarding your question, if Seishirou summons out Dracomon, then Seishirou would not evolve him in the middle of a fight. Even if Seishirou did, Dracomon doesn't want to. Dracomon can pretty much hold his own against most Champion-level Digimon; the reason being that he has been continuously training since the day he met Seishirou. That would be after the 01 kids defeat the Dark Masters. If the situation is dire, then Seishirou would point the TransVice at Dracomon and a stream of light will shoot out of the wings and engulf Dracomon, digivolving him into Coredramon. However, immediately after the battle, Dracomon would berate himself for relying on evolution to win and also beat his forehead with his clenched fist until blood is drawn.<br>Hope that answers you question. Update soon.  
>~Tendou Souji~<br>_Yes, it had been a whole two months. When I realized I'd delayed that chapter for a month I was rushing to complete it. But, I had to hold more as my finals were coming up. There is absolutely no way I'm closing this story down without a good reason. No more 'Sorry, this is messed up' from me. But, in advance, sorry for this chapter being immensely late.  
>Haha, nice words for the Three Demons. :D<br>Wow, I'll be sure to keep Coredramon's destructive nature in mind the next time I write him. The only reason I didn't bring out his destructive nature was because the battleground was already darn wrecked. Hiroto's unofficial digivice is just an alternative for hiding Shoutmon. He'll get his _real_ one soon.  
>Okay, I'll take that into mind. And yes, it answers my question quite well. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.<p>

ThirdTimeztheCharm  
><em>Interesting chapter. Once again, Veemon takes the cake as my favorite character! I am beginning to question Hiroto's reliability as a narrator, he seems very self-absorbed and cocky...might be something you want to tone down.<br>Also, I would have loved to read about his adventurous way to school! Right these things out, they could really help the reader connect with Hiroto!  
>Guardromon? Dwarvish? I don't see it.<br>Also, axe the use of "Oh, did I forget to mention?" and just mention it. It gets annoying. :P  
><em>Veemon's also my favourite character in this story, aside Hiroto. Yeah, maybe I'll reduce Hiroto's cockiness, but I doubt my abilities in doing that.  
>I'll try to write out those scenes I possible.<br>Guardromon? Dwarvish? Yeah, maybe I was mistaken on that.  
>Thanks for reminding me. I'll reduce my usage of that line.<p>

ThirdTimeztheCharm  
><em>"Wait, were we talking about supporting Yuki's team? My bad, but I don't really see the upside to that."<br>^This line. Forever. Love it.  
>I think that Veemon's character development is great, he's hilarious. I hope to see some good interaction between Shoutmon and him later.<br>Two major problems in this chapter, other than Hiroto's god-like immunity, you never had a moment where Hiroto recognized Seshirou, and you described Coredramon as having pure gray-white claws, which doesn't make sense.  
>Also, why do some characters have Japanese names, but others don't? I think it's better to be consistent, or think of a way that they are living in Japan.<br>Also, keep on the look out for the first chapter of my story: The Travis Story (the title isn't the best :P)  
><em>That line. Forever. Love it, too.  
>Veemon's character development is great, but enjoy how he interacts with Shoutmon while it lasts.<br>Hiroto's god-like immunity... darn, I was trying to avoid that. Before I get to anything else, I apologise for not spotting his godliness before and I'll try reducing his power in the future battle scenes.  
>Coredramon's pure gray-white claws? Sorry, I admit I wasn't feeling in top shape when I wrote that.<br>Well, you can use your imagination. Maybe they're foreign, or maybe their names are just English dubs. :) Besides, if you're talking about Will or Drake, it's because their submitters wanted them to be as such. I have no say in the matter when it comes to OC biography.  
>I'll look out for that story when it's released. The title <em>is<em> important, but what's more important is the story itself. As long as the story's good, everyone will want to read it. I hope it goes well. :)

NovelistOfTheSky  
><em>Really good chapter, sorry about the late review, uni has sort of taken over down here. My tips for crowd dialouge is that even in a crowdgroup, you get groups. For example, it could start off a bit of a free for all but it will eventually calm and become person 1 person 2 person 3 in one group, then person 4 and person 5 in a seperate side of the conversation. Or you could just have them talk and cut each other off and one person lead the conversation. Hope that helps.  
><em>It's okay. My chapters are pretty late, too.  
>Good idea. Thanks for the tips. They'll definitely help. But, what I'm trying to aim for now is the method of controlling fourteen to twenty people talking together. It might even rise to forty people, depending on whether the digidestined <em>all<em> meet and if their digimon actively take part in the conversation. :D

coolguilmon  
><em>question why is it only veemon what happened to th other main characters like patamon or gatomon or anything really from the main characters<br>_This Veemon isn't the one from Adventure 02. Yes, there'll be doubles when I make Hiroto and Davis meet, but according to what I know, there'll be several more doubles joining the fray, if I'm not mistaken.

DiLost  
><em>Cool story, I've been looking for good OC Digimon fic since a while, this story has a lot of potential<br>By the way, here is an OC.  
>Name: Shirayuki 'Shira' Tenno<br>Age: 16  
>Gender: Male<br>Physical:5'"6 height, as for the face just look at my avatar. Usually wear white shirt and white jacket with black pants.  
>Personality: Sarcastic and calm outside but actually has a dominative personality (not in sexual way). He likes people who are loyal (or as he call them devoted) to him and he will repay them with his <em>_loyalty. He is also good at housework such as cooking and cleaning. In love with his sister Kanna, and is feeling guilty, while his sister think his love to her is normal in all family.  
>History: He grew up only with his sister after their parents were killed by a criminal. He always took care of his sister and has developed a huge sister complex. He found BlackGuilmon nearly dead. near his home and took care of him. He consider being digidestined as a way to repay BlackGuilmon help in taking care of his sister.<br>Origin: Tokyo, Japan  
>Partner: BlackGuilmon<br>Name: BlackGuilmon  
>Personality: Unlike most BlackGuilmon that are wild, this BlackGuilmon act more like Guilmon. He is childish and naive (which makes him a good friend of Kanna). If there is any enemy, he will become wild in fight. In wild state, he will follow only Shirayuki orders because his instinct realize that he owe Shirayuki his life after he was attacked by other BlackGuilmons and left near dead.<br>Digivolution: BlackGuilmon, BlackGrowlmon, BlackWarGrowlmon, ChaosGallantmon  
>Just in case, I add his sister data too.<br>Name: Kanna Tenno  
>Age: 16<br>Gender: Female  
>Physical: a little shorter than Shirayuki. She is Shirayuki twin so just think of Shirayuki with feminine face, and long ponytailed hair. Usually wear white shirt and white skirt.<br>Personality: Kind and naive. She is sometime clumsy and can do no housework. Shirayuki always took care of her so she is very dependant of him. She believe that all brother and sister have the same relationship as they have.  
>History: She grew up with Shirayuki and have always been protected by him, causing her to be naive to real life. She knew about digimons and think them as friends because BlackGuilmon always played with her.<br>Origin: Tokyo, Japan  
>If there is any problem with my OCs, please just mail me. I'll try to fix the problem.<br>_Your OCs will be interesting to write. I can already imagine Kanne trying to calm a wild digimon down. Plus, maybe Kanna can inquire on Hiroto's relationship with his siblings.  
>Something optional: do you want your OC to be involved in any sports? This could help them get to know the digidestined in a different way, like through a competition or something.<p>

That Anon Guy  
><em>I guess somewhat short sentences can help with the crowd things or they don't all say something at the same time.<br>And I'll be attempting with an OC, and see wether or not said OC shows up for something._  
>Okay, I'll keep that in mind.<br>Thanks.

Okay, everyone, really, really, extremely sorry for the late update. It's been, what, three months? I would really have updated sooner but I've been experiencing writer's block.

I actually had this chapter finished two weeks after Chapter 9, but I found many mistakes in that. Then, I fixed all the mistakes and added in some stuff, which took two days. Then, I realized the battle scene was too one-sided. Afterwards, I realized I was making Hiroto too godly again. Finally, I managed to revise and rewrite the whole chapter.

It's also come to mind that, in my previous chapters, I've been usually designing battles by being won with the need for power, not strategy. I'm trying to change that so you can enjoy more battles without just reading, "For my comrades, I will defeat you!" and all that in later chapters. Hopefully the battle scene in this chapter is apology enough for the lateness of this update.

Enjoy!

* * *

><p>Digimon Miracles<br>The Start of Miracles  
>Chapter 10: A Miracle Takes Three<p>

Remember how I wanted to watch Yuki fail against the Okinawa team? Yeah, I'm not going to have the pleasure for a while.

After the Monochromon dissolved to data, I made my way to stadium ASAP with Veemon and Shoutmon well-stuffed in my bag. Due to my unbelievably bad luck, the journey to the stadium was unfortunately eventful. There were malfunctioning traffic lights, cars zooming at much more than the speed limit, and overhead bridges under construction almost everywhere. So, I guess you can see I was nowhere close to getting to the stadium on time.

The stadium was a magnificent sight to behold. The coliseum-like building rose several dozen metres above the ground. Around twelve feet from ground level, lights were placed at intervals of half a dozen metres. Fences of radius five hundred yards surrounded the stadium and enclosed the grassy fields the structure was built on. There were several concrete paths specially for spectators to walk on, and along this stretch were several food stalls.

From outside, I could already hear the cheering of the crowd. On a normal day, this stadium could be packed to a maximum of six thousand people. If the match was really extreme, such as this one, they would try squeezing people in to bring the number to seven thousand spectators at a time. I felt envious I wasn't in there but I was determined to be.

Sadly, the guard on-duty wouldn't let me. _At all_. He went on and on about how I was late, how I didn't have a ticket, and how he was supposed to stick to a disciplined and neat schedule. Despite this, the guardhouse that he was posted to was completely filthy. Papers littered the tables and floors. A bottle of Coke was modified to be an experimental rocket, but the fizz had already leaked out. Several pens rolled around the work table, whereas a picture of Superman hung on the wall.

"You call _that_ disciplined and neat?" I pointed to the desk in the guardhouse.

The guard hesitated for a moment, before moving to block my view. "Sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave this place."

After a few minutes of pointless debating and arguing, I gave up trying to justify myself over his inadequate work performance. I turned to telling stories about Yuki. Every embarrassing tale that Yuki had, including the sticky icky mess that she made this morning, I disclosed to him. For the first two tales, the guard acted uninterested. But, by the sixth story, he was already leaning against the fence holding his gut in pain. He laughed so much his mouth would be numb for the next coming minutes.

All in all, I got my entry pass _and_ indirectly embarrassed Yuki so it's a win-win situation. By now the match was only two to three minutes from full time. However, I didn't care much about how Yuki's team played, what tactics they used, and all the junk that they call 'skill'. I only want to know whether they won or lost, and by what margin. I'm not interested in anything my sister does on the field since it's usually somewhere along my lines of 'I don't care'.

But before I got in, Rinji showed up. Ugh. My day just got worse tenfold.

If it was just another guard showing up I would've ducked between his legs and made a dash for the seats. But now it was _Rinji_, and I'm sure I don't have to reiterate how strict he can be, especially when it comes to me. Mentally, I weighed the options: watching how Yuki was doing, or staying alive. Oh crap, why did I always have to make such drastic decisions?

Reluctantly, I exited the stadium. Rinji didn't look happy and I didn't want to push his buttons, no matter how tempting that would've been. He's already made my life miserable; I don't need him constantly turning my life upside down, though that probably sum up what he does.

Finally, after what-seemed-like hours and hours of waiting (which was actually just fifteen minutes, but you get the idea), the game officially ended. The crowd of over six thousand spectators flooded the exits in the next few seconds. Against my will, the flood of people washed me even further from the stadium. Plus, with the big crowd and all the tall people around I couldn't spot Selene anywhere in the crowd.

Minutes later, Selene called out my name from behind and I managed to locate her. But, it wasn't until twice that amount of time that we were able to meet up thanks to the still-huge crowd that filled the place.

"Hey! Where were you? You missed the match!" Selene said.

"The guard wouldn't let me in. Well, he was about to until Rinji cut in."

"Well, bummer. Anyway, what took you so long? Maybe Seishirou could've gotten you in like he did for me. He was on the VIP list."

"He was on the- Wait, are you serious?" I fumed. Seishirou got here not more than a week ago and he was allowed in for _free_. I was one of the candidates for this match but I couldn't even get a sneak peek of the show.

"Yeah. So, why were you late?" Selene quizzed.

"Well, Seishirou didn't exactly take care of the Monochromon. Speaking of the kid, where is he?" I asked.

"Seishirou had to rush home for something," Selene shrugged. "Now, back to the Monochromon thing; how did you get away?"

"What makes you think I had to get away?"

"Come on, Hiroto. Don't play this game with me," Selene smiled. "We both know very well how you were holding out against the creature, so don't tell me you defeated it by some sheer miracle."

"Oh, then how ironic is this? I actually beat it!" I faked an exited cheer. "It was difficult, but with Shoutmon's help, Veemon and I were able to beat the oversized lizard."

"Shoutmon...?" Selene wondered.

"Yeah, Shoutmon. You know, Drake's Shoutmon?"

"_Drake_'_s_ Shoutmon?" Selene exclaimed. "_The_ Shoutmon that tried to kill you on more than one occasion?"

"Umm, leaving out the former part, yeah," I confirmed. "I don't see what you're getting so worked up about."

"Okay, let me get this straight... or as straight as I can. _You_ teamed up with _Drake's Shoutmon_ just because _he_ helped you defeat _one_ digimon?"

"Like I said, yeah," I repeated. "Sure he tried to annihilate me twice and you once, but come on, the little guy was under Drake's influence."

"How do you know he's not under Drake's influence now?" Selene countered.

"Okay... that I didn't think of but it's something my gut is telling me," I stated. I knew the term 'united we stand' and ever since recent events I stood firmly by it. "Come on, you guys can _digivolve_ your digimon. Why can't I just have another digimon to add to my team to even the odds? You might not always have to come to my rescue, too."

"So you're stuffing both of them in your bag now?"

"Technically, yeah. I'm squeezing DemiVeemon in my bag-"

"And it totally hurts," DemiVeemon's muffled voice came. At least I knew he was still alive.

"-and I stored Shoutmon in a digivice he gave me," I finished.

"Digivice? Did you say he gave you a digivice?" Selene asked. I nodded. "And is it real?"

"Well, according to Shoutmon, some of his friends back in the digital world created it for him so that his human partner could carry him around easily."

"Then you better be careful," Selene warned in a serious tone. "No one's ever even had the gall to create a digivice, but based on what some of our seniors say, the results could be catastrophic. Depending on what you're using it for, it could easily blow up an entire town, or worst case scenario, the entire country."

"You've got to be kidding me. It's that serious?" My eyes widened in surprise. "I'm just using it to store Shoutmon so I don't have to lug two digimon around everywhere I go. Is _that_ dangerous?"

"Well, I guess if you use it to store him – and _only_ to store a digimon – it should be safe. Only serious stuff like digivolving would cause casualties. Higher levels of digivolution are more dangerous if used with a fake digivice."

"Oh... I think I get it," I mused.

"Digivolution is a very powerful process," Selene continued explaining. "The energy needed for digivolution would be negative in a self-made digivice, so the energy they emit will only counteract one another, creating-"

"I know, I know, I know," I yapped, "I said I got it."

"Well, okay then," Selene shrugged.

"So, back to the match, how was it?" I asked. "Who won? When the crowd came out, some were smiling, some were drooping and the others looked like they'd just witnessed a miracle."

"Well, the score was 6-0," Selene said. I was like, 'What in the world! 6-0! Is Yuki's team that powerful!' until she added in, "The Okinawans won by that huge a margin."

"Are you- you actually... serious...?" I stuttered. Not in my whole life would I have been able to imagine Yuki losing like that to someone else besides me. I know I've said bad things about her in the past, but her soccer skills were one of the things I personally respected about her. Make her and I work together in a team and we're the ultimate winning machine... not that I'd like to think about that much.

"Mmm-hmm," Selene nodded. "There was one girl on the Okinawan team – a blonde – who moved gracefully across the field, whether or not the ball was in her possession. She danced across all the players swiftly and scored every goal with style. Compared the her, Yuki's team was left dumbfounded and in her tracks every single time."

"Dorumon," I called out. I got a muffled reply from Selene's bag. "She's overselling the girl, isn't she?"

"Yup," came the reply.

"Hey!" Selene snapped at Dorumon, who remained quiet.

"Okay, ignoring the fact that the blond girl is supposed to be very good, the fact remains that Yuki lost badly. So, want to have a celebration?" I asked.

"Actually, I already invited Seishirou and your friends to a celebration we're having tomorrow. Want to come?"

Hearing 'Seishirou' and 'your friends' made me feel queasy, but I had nothing else to do, so I just agreed.

"Okay, Sushi Heaven, one o'clock. Don't be late. Last one there pays for the whole group," she winked before running off.

I considered how punctual I always was, before voicing out, "I am doomed."

Reading my mind, Veemon agreed, "Yes, you are."

"If it's another digimon attack that slows me down, I'm making you pay for it, Veemon," I retaliated. This time he stayed silent.

When I got home, I found that my siblings were still out. My guess is they're bringing Yuki out to comfort her. Between you and me, I feel for her. I really do. Despite the fact that I hate her with every fibre in my body, whenever it came to soccer, the level of resentment between us would deteriorate into just extreme competitive rivalry.

In the living room, I unzipped my bag. DemiVeemon bounded to the kitchen faster than you could say 'chocolate bar' and emptied out all chocolate bars in sight. By the time I reached the kitchen, Veemon had finished three bars of chocolate and was forcing a fourth and fifth into his mouth at the same time. In front of him was a jar of lemonade on the table which was mysteriously already half-empty. I should sign him up for a contest sometime.

Back in the living room, I took Shoutmon's digivice out and fondled with it for a second. "Hey, Shoutmon?" I called out, hoping there would be an answer. I felt like a total idiot talking to a mobile phone which wasn't even a mobile phone in the first place. I know Shoutmon's in there somewhere, but I still felt awkward.

"Yeah?" Shoutmon answered.

"How do I get you back out?"

"That's easy. You press the screen."

Figures. That was the only thing on the digivice. Although I was hoping for something more, I guess this would have to do. But you have to admit, having fancy flashes and all that does boost morale. I did as he asked and the screen flashed white thrice before releasing a swirl of data pieces. Data shone brightly as it swirled into a mini-tornado, slowly forming the silhouette of Shoutmon. Then, the brightness disappeared with a flash.

"This thing works like a charm!" I exclaimed, holding the digivice up for inspection.

"Did you actually think I would give you a piece of junk?" Shoutmon snorted before adding, "Don't answer that."

I slumped myself on the couch while Shoutmon made his way to the kitchen casually. He joined Veemon in his eating spree, though Shoutmon magnetized to burgers instead. He gathered some ingredients from the fridge – buns, vegetables, tomato, meat, cheese, and some orange juice – before adding them all up to form a nine-inch-tall burger. And he drenched the whole thing in orange juice. Note, when he started eating none of the ingredients were defrosted yet.

Me? I sat on the couch watching TV. I didn't realize how tired fighting the Monochromon had made me until I rested my muscles on the soft surface of the sofa. I felt like I could enter a hibernating race with a bear. Since I didn't feel like sleeping, napping, or fainting, I just watched television. Mainly, I surfed the channels watching shows that always just air repeats. Then, I gave up and read my manga collection.

Rinji, Mai, and Yuki returned late in the evening. Yuki danced into the house with her hands full of baggages. She was as happy as could be, except I could still see disappointment behind that mask of cheerfulness. I didn't see how shopping could help one release frustration... must be a girl thing. Still, spending what is estimated to be a hundred and eighty five thousand yen should really at least perk her up.

The next day, I awoke to DemiVeemon and Shoutmon playing racing games on the gaming console. They stated they had tried waking me up dozens of times throughout the night, but just proceeded with their slumber party when I slept like a log. The first thirty minutes of waking up was spent not washing my face but instead cleaning up their mess. And was that... oh, gross. I have to tell Shoutmon where the toilet is from now on.

I had breakfast and watched TV shows until eleven or so. Breakfast was dull but educational. I learnt that, eat your food with two energetic digimon around and you tend to spill your food a lot. For TV shows, there was still nothing interesting on. I just continued reading mangas like a bookworm, though the type I read won't add to my vocabulary or grammar much.

Around twelve thirty, I departed for the Sushi Heaven restaurant. It was a restaurant specially where you could order sushi. There are many types of these restaurants littered around Japan, though I have to admit Sushi Heaven is one of the best I've tasted. It's also quite costly, too. Spend five hours in there and even the richest of men will have half their wealth stripped away.

I got to the restaurant in record time. No cars or anything to slow me down today. My luck was holding out, though having this much luck meant I'd have to pay for it later. Maybe being ambushed by three super-digimon at once? I don't know and I don't care. For now I just want to dig in and forget all my troubles.

The restaurant itself wasn't much to look at from the outside. The walls were painted brown and were brick-themed. The transparent windows were shielded from sunlight by bamboo shutters from the inside. The words 'Sushi Heaven' were written in cursive above the doors and windows. The contrasting yellow colour of the words were written in cursive above the door, but that was the only reference to it being a sushi restaurant. Any regular tourist would've overlooked the shop as a garden emporium.

The magic wasn't outside the restaurant, but it was _inside_. When you enter, it's like stepping into an entirely different world. The room was moderately-lit by ceiling lights, giving the room a cool and calm aura. There was a conveyor belt in the shape of an oval in the middle of the room where sushis were placed for browsing and purchasing. Within the oval worked several professional sushi masters. Elsewhere, the tables were arranged in a neatly grid-like fashion, except for some big round ones at the center of the room.

I spotted Selene sitting at one of the large tables. For now, she was the only one there, so I hadn't needed to worry about expending my entire life's allowance just to treat our group lunch. I sat beside her and placed my bag under the table as she had. DemiVeemon grunted upon being dropped on the floor, but made no move after that.

"So I guess I don't have to worry about people bankrupting me anytime soon," I joked to break the silence.

"No, actually everyone else already came more than ten minutes ago," Selene stated. "Your watch must be malfunctioning or something. You should have it checked. I said one o'clock, so why are you here at ten past one?"

"You for real?" My spirits broke. Now I would be walking home with empty pockets.

"I don't get why you never make it on time," Selene said. "You're always either unlucky or just totally forgetful. Don't you have a watch or something to keep you on time on a normal basis?"

"Well, I have a clock at home but it runs slow sometimes and I've never gotten a wristwatch, so no," I answered. Shoutmon beeped a bit, but I paid him no mind.

"Hey, Hiroto!" Minnie greeted me from behind, patting my shoulder with her slightly wet and undried hands. People have got to start using the dryers or tissues in the toilets.

"I am doomed," I said.

"How's everything?" Dylan asked, following Minnie with his laptop in hand.

"I am doomed," I repeated.

Yuna was playing around on her phone, but she too noticed me and greeted me.

Once again, "I am doomed."

Seishirou and Lance were the last ones to arrive at the table, but they had sushis in hand so they clearly went to get their pick of sushis before any ran out. They were talking something about soccer, though through the chatter of my friends the only things I caught were the words 'dribbling' and 'shooting'. They were no doubt discussing about the previous day's match.

Seeing them, I added again, "I am doomed," and banged my head on the table.

"Why do you keep saying that?" Yuna asked, putting her phone away.

"There are seven of us, we're hungry for sushi, each one costs at least eight hundred yen, and I came last. What do you think?" I said in a matter-of-fact way.

"Well, it's your funeral," Dylan said.

"Anyway, where were you yesterday?" Lance asked after finishing his conversation with Seishirou. "You missed a great match."

"Well, honestly speaking I was held up by some of Seishirou's unfinished work."

"I didn't know you knew how to work," Seishirou spoke up.

"Well, your loss," I replied.

"Okay, I know Selene told me I forgot to finish off the Monochromon. I'm sorry for that since it could've been a very traumatizing-"

"And deadly," I added.

"-incident for you. But you survived, didn't you?"

"You do realize he got a new partner, right?" Selene backed me up.

Seishirou choked on his tea. "Hiroto, digidestined can only have _one_ digimon."

"This so-called partner is Shoutmon," Selene added. "The same Shoutmon that I told you attacked Hiroto twice and me once."

Seishirou's eyes widened. "Okay, forget what I said just now. Hiroto, either you're very smart and you've made friends with the enemy, or you're too stupid to see that your enemy's made friends with you. Though I prefer the latter, it's your choice."

"Yeah, 'stupid', and you're talking to the kid who made it this far without the help of digivolution, unlike you," I retorted.

"The fact that you haven't been killed by any of the digimon so far is because there are people whose digimon can attain _digivolution_ are there to help you out."

"But if I can last until they get there, it's good enough, isn't it?" I provoked, "Even if the said digidestined doesn't always make sure he's actually _defeated_ the digimon before he walks away full of pride and smug with victory."

"Whoa," Yuna intervened. "What's with the two of you? You're suddenly getting so worked up. It's like you can't even sit at the same table."

"We can't," the two of us said in sync.

"This is going nowhere," Lance sighed.

Seishirou and I glared at one another, building up tension. First, I thought he was a nobody when he came to the school. Then, he aced the classes. 'Okay, he's super smart,' I told myself. Then, my friends flocked to him like bees to honey. I still kept my cool since I thought I was a digidestined. Then, this kid ruins it by turning out to be the most talented digidestined I've met so far, rivaled only by Will, whom I didn't even know so well.

"Can we have a minute?" Seishirou asked, and led me out of the restaurant.

I didn't know what he wanted, but for the sake of getting done with it I followed him out. For all I knew he could've set a trap outside and asked Dracomon to incinerate me alive before I even knew what was happening.

"What do you want?" I asked, once the doors to the restaurant were safely shut behind us.

"I don't mean to argue with you, but why do you have to be such a social reject?"

I was taken aback by this comment. "I am _not_ a social reject. I have friends-"

"And who have they been with most lately?"

That was really crossing the line. It didn't take a genius to figure out he was talking about Yuna, Lance, Minnie, and Dylan. "If you brought me out here just to brag about how good a time you're having, you can forget it. Just because they're not around doesn't mean I'm a complete loner."

"Exactly."

His words hit me like an arrow. I won't lie; the past few days of my life were dark compared to others. But, despite all this I had also made friends, friends like DemiVeemon, Shoutmon, Selene and Will, and to a lesser extent, this Seishirou kid who was currently giving me a lecture. I had been so focused on the fact that Seishirou 'stole' my friends that I haven't realized I had made new ones in the process.

"Why do you think your friends needed some time away from you?" Seishirou asked.

The answer clicked in my mind like a gear. "I was starting to distance myself, wasn't I?"

By now, I was sure that Seishirou knew every history there was to know about me and my friends. The only question here was: to what extent? Did he just know of recent events, or did his knowledge extend to that of my first few days at Saikou? Either way, he knew stuff about me and not vice versa.

"After meeting Veemon, you showed him to them, right? They took it as okay back then because they didn't know what would happen next," Seishirou explained. "They never expected to be in a life-threatening situation like what happened with Drake. Worse still, your 'job' got into their personal lives when they lost to Yuki."

I was starting to get it all in place in my head... except for one thing. "Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because we're supposedly the next set of digidestined and I can't risk having you and I at each other's throat's all the time."

I could see it now: Seishirou Syuusuke, deleted by an enemy digimon because his rival thought it would be funny to secretly use him as bait. "But why tell me all this _now_?"

"Well, I had to enjoy having friends, right?" Seishirou asked, giving me a smile I concluded would be super-rare. "Most of my life people just befriended me because of my talents. I never felt what it was like to have friends who actually cared about how you felt or how you did. Before this, the only one I had to go for comfort was Selene."

"You do know the school offers counseling classes for loners, right?"

"Then why didn't you take it up?"

"I have friends."

"Yes, you _have_ friends." Seishirou stressed the word. "Do you know that half the time your friends were with me, they were talking about how great you were?"

"Wait, seriously?"

"Don't think that just because they're consciously apart from you for a few days means that they've cut off all ties to you. Yesterday at the stadium, when Selene and I got there, they kept insisting that one of the seats in the middle – the ones with the perfect view – was reserved for you and you only."

"You're not lying, right?" I asked suspiciously. My friends were definitely like that, I'd know, but after going through those past few days I was starting to feel doubtful... so doubtful I preferred slapping myself twenty times than thinking about it.

"Definitely," Seishirou replied. "So can we eat? I'm starving and you're paying."

I groaned. "Please don't remind me."

Seishirou turned to enter. I almost followed when another nerve twitched. Without another thought I knew it was a digimon in the vicinity. It always was. Whenever I got this sudden feeling I knew there would be a fight sometime soon. I turned around, hoping to find the digimon hiding somewhere waiting to ambush me. Luckily, no sort of digimon were in the area.

"You sense something?" Seishirou asked. "Digidestined aren't supposed to be able to 'sense' digimon. That's their partner's job. So why can you?"

"I don't know," I answered. "I don't even know the full basics of a digidestined yet. How am I supposed to know why I can do what I can do?"

"Okay..." Seishirou conceded. "So what do you sense?"

I looked around once more. "I'm not sure. I still don't have this whole 'I sense a digimon' thing down. Personally, I wish I couldn't do this. It always messes up my free time."

Shoutmon's digivice beeped wildly in my bag. I retrieved it, but the beeping only intensified until I shook the item roughly several times. "Hiroto! It's Drake! I can sense him!"

"What?" I gasped. Drake?  
>"This Drake is Shoutmon's owner, right?" Seishirou guessed.<p>

"Yeah." I looked around once more, paranoid that Drake might ambush me from somewhere. "I better get going. Drake's the type of person who would destroy an entire building just looking for someone. And for better or worse, I think he's hunting for me."

"Hold on," Seishirou stopped me. "You don't know where to go to find him."

"I think Shoutmon can do that just fine," I said. I got a beep of agreement from the little guy.

"Are you sure?" Seishirou pressed.

DemiVeemon pushed around in my bag. "I think, if Shoutmon fails, DemiVeemon's constant struggling will lead me there no problem. Besides, I keep getting the feeling that I _know_ where he is."

"Which is?" Seishirou raised an eyebrow.

"That way," I absentmindedly pointed. I don't know how I knew but my index finger just thrust in that direction automatically.

"If you're so intent on going, I'll call Selene," Seishirou answered. "Better three than one."

Just then, my internal nerves tingled like crazy. "I don't think I have the time. You call her if you want. I'm going first."

I took off in the direction, heading down one of the less populated streets. Behind me, I heard Seishirou give a sigh of defeat and race after me.

"I'm coming too!"

I felt relieved. I knew I didn't get along too well with him but that guy's digimon was one powerhouse. Something within me told me that Drake would be much stronger than before. I would need a lot of help to defeat him this time and I was glad Seishirou would be there to provide me with necessary backup.

Along the way, we weaved our way expertly through half a dozen people. For me, it came easily to direct my way around some people in the way since I commonly played soccer; it was natural for a player to be able to string his way past defenders. But Seishirou did much better than I thought he would; the kid actually kept up with me the whole way, and I'll never admit this but he was slowly catching up.

Finally, we arrived at our destination: a T-junction. I don't know why I knew it was here. When we reached this spot I just seemed to forget where I was supposed to go. I double-checked with Shoutmon but even he stated this was where he sensed his former partner the most. DemiVeemon was also struggling a lot now, so I knew he was itching for an incoming fight.

The T-junction we were at wasn't exactly best of quality – the exact place Drake would choose for a showdown. There were lamp posts stationed at every corner of the junction but all of them malfunctioned, as once in a while I saw some static electricity sparking off. The buildings surrounding us were of corroded cement and faded paint from the passage of time. Even the roads weren't even anymore; they were broken here and there.

Suddenly, "Erase Claw!" a hoarse voice called from above.

Seishirou and I looked up and saw a shadowy figure dashing down to us at high speed from at most two hundred metres away. I rolled out of the way while Seishirou jumped backwards twice. We moved just in the nick of time, too. The figure's claws hit the ground and, everywhere the claws touched, the ground disintegrated into pieces of data. Within a second, he had already formed a crater half a metre deep and created a whole billow of smoke surrounding him.

In an instant, I had both DemiVeemon and Shoutmon out for battle. DemiVeemon digivolved and got into a battle stance, already itching for a fight due to yesterday's so-called victory. Shoutmon wielded his mike proudly in his hands, ready for his second battle with Veemon and I.

Seishirou retrieved his TransVice and slid his fingers over the blue crystal in the center. The pair of wings on the device shot open and released a familiar stream of light from between them. The light shot out all the way into the sky, materializing into a vortex which Coredramon descended from in all his glory.

As the smoke around the enemy faded, I got a good look at him. The digimon was humanoid in shape with gray skin – body, tail, and all – with shiny metal plates embedded into his shoulders and legs. Talk about a gross mutated cyborg. His claws were of average length, slight curve, and pure destruction. There was a metal mask covering his upper face, leaving no holes for even his eyes or ears. Two horns stuck out behind his head. He also had a set of wings that were (surprise, surprise) torn.

I heard footsteps approach from behind the atrocious monster. I was about to yell for the newcomer to run when I realized he was none other than Drake. He strode into the battlefield beside what-I'm-suspecting is his new partner. His longsword hung firmly on his back, glimmering in the sunlight. He still had that same look on his face that told you he was going to rip you to shreds.

"So that's Drake," Seishirou observed.

"Yeah, but there's something off about him..." I said.

Veemon spoke up, "Maybe he got a new haircut? No, that's not it. I know! He shined his sword! That's why it looked better than before!"

"I've got it! Drake's aura!" Shoutmon said.

"That would make sense..." Seishirou pondered.

"But why wouldn't we have noticed this before?" I asked.

"Well, a digidestined's aura usually grows under certain circumstances. For instance, when the digidestined is in grave danger, when he's with his digimon partner, or when his partner is at a higher level of power," Seishirou explained.

"Let's forget about the second one?" Shoutmon plead.

"There are five levels a digimon is known to have – In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, and Mega. Right now, Coredramon's what you would call a Champion digimon. Veemon and Shoutmon are Rookie digimon. Get the picture?" Seishirou turned to me.

I nodded. If digimon were this complicated, I think I'd have a better chance at the international exams.

"What level do you think that digimon of his is at?" I asked Seishirou.

"I know! I know!" Veemon interrupted. "It's got to be higher than In-Training, right?"

Seishirou ignored Veemon's talk. That annoyed me a bit but even I found Veemon a bit too hyper at times, and I was supposedly his partner. "Based on how strong you're sensing him as, I'd say he's probably a Champion or an Ultimate. I'd vote for him being the latter."

"So we're facing an Ultimate digimon?" Shoutmon asked. Seishirou replied with a nod.

"We are so doomed," I muttered.

Seishirou continued. "When your digimon partner is at a higher stage, then your aura will grow as well. Let's take Selene for instance. When Dorumon, a Rookie kinda' like Veemon and Shoutmon, digivolves, do you realize that you get a little smarter?"

Veemon and I stared at each other blankly. Smarter? "No," we both replied.

"Okay, then I really don't know what's wrong with you," Seishirou said finally. "But considering the fact that Drake is radiating terror into his enemies, I'd say he's the digidestined of Anything-Related-to-Terror."

"Well," Veemon said energetically, punching his fist into his other palm, "Hiroto's got to be the Digidestined of Whatever-Has-To-Do-With-Kicking-Butt, 'cause I feel like kicking butt!"

"Veemon, you always want to kick butt," I reasoned.

"I've only known you for less than twenty-four hours and even I know that," Shoutmon backed me up.

Drake interrupted our discussion. "Cyberdramon, attack!" he commanded.

"Got it!" Cyberdramon roared. The buildings around us shook for a moment.

Cyberdramon flapped his wings once, sending a huge gust of wind our way. Seishirou was protected by Coredramon, who conveniently just had to open up his wings as shields. Veemon, Shoutmon, and I were less lucky. The wind buffeted us in the face and I had to cover my face with my hands to actually reduce the force of the wind. Even then, I was actually forced back a few inches.

"That was... amazing..." Shoutmon stammered.

"Yeah..." I agreed.

"Hey, you done talking?" Drake yelled. "I see you've got Shoutmon on your side! Might as well, too, considering that weaklings should stick with weaklings!"

Shoutmon tensed at the comment. Being around his former digidestined, one who was probably the first human he met, must've really got to him, seeing as how we were on different sides.

"Why you-!" I almost ran at him when Seishirou stopped me.

"Hiroto, don't fall for the bait," he said. "He's trying to lure you in so he can easily finish you off."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" I snapped. Seishirou had that covered.

"Coredramon," Seishirou ordered, and with the glance of an eye his digimon partner understood his commands.

Coredramon took off in flight towards Cyberdramon, intent on dealing the first blow. Seishirou and Coredramon were experts as digidestined, so I had to refrain myself from joining in the fight in case I accidentally got in their way. Unfortunaetly, Veemon didn't feel or think the same way.

"Chocolate!" Veemon's battle cry sounded. He ran towards Cyberdramon as well.

By now, Coredramon had already engaged Cyberdramon in battle. The former was holding off pretty well against Drake's new addition, yet Cyberdramon was fending off the attacks not bad either. Every scratch sent was returned, every block used was repeated. It was like watching a fight against two mirrors. I was quite taken back, seeing as Coredramon was, as Seishirou put it, a Champion whereas Cyberdramon was an Ultimate.

Everything was leading to a stalemate, which in our perspective was quite good... until Veemon jumped in.

Veemon punched Cyberdramon in the head but it accomplished nothing. Cyberdramon didn't feel it and didn't show any sign of annoyance either. Veemon was like a fly pestering him, something that he only needed to swat away. With a simple swipe of his hand, Cyberdramon did send Veemon flying. Coredramon, acting upon instict, grabbed Veemon in midair, though this opened him up to one of Cyberdramon's tail slams.

Both Veemon and Coredramon were thrown backwards by the impact. Cyberdramon dashed after them, not planning to give them any recovery time. His speed mid-flight was really commendable. He had his claws outstretched, and any moment now Veemon and Coredramon would be torn to shreds.

Shoutmon and I locked gazes before we both nodded in silent approval. Shoutmon threw his mike from his right hand to his left, while I grasped his right arm firmly.

"Cyberdramon! Over here!" I yelled, getting the digimon's attention.

I calculated how far Cyberdramon would've advanced within the next few seconds and with all my might, I propelled Shoutmon towards him. Shoutmon grasped his mike with both hands and held it above his head. Cyberdramon actually turned his head to face the oncoming threat, though he didn't slow down.

"Soul Crusher!" Shoutmon yelled.

His body was bathed in a screen of red aura. He brought the mike down on Cyberdramon with enough force to give someone a concussion. However, it did little to the Ultimate digimon. If anything, Shoutmon's attack backfired as he himself was blown back by his own attack. Cyberdramon only intensified the hit by smacking Shoutmon away with the back of his palm.

Shoutmon crashed into a nearby building. He was injured but still overall fine. I doubted the reasons I'd used him as a distraction in the first place but our goal was achieved – Coredramon had regained his balance and snatched Veemon out of the air, landing safely beside Seishirou.

Shoutmon shook his head and wobbled out of the small crater he'd created in the concrete wall. "That hurt..."

"Let's do it again!" Veemon cheered.

I sighed. "I really need to re-evaluate my life."

"Hiroto," Seishirou called, eyeing Drake. I turned to face him. "Drake has a longsword on his back; does he use it often?"

"Often? He uses it all the time he fights!" I burst.

"Okay. Then you, Veemon, and Shoutmon take Drake on," Seishirou planned. "Coredramon will be enough to handle Cyberdramon. Just to make sure, I'll keep an eye out for any openings that Cyberdramon has."

"Wait, what?" I gasped. "No way am I letting you handle this alone! I'm in on the action, too!"

"Hiroto, _listen_," Seishirou said. "You take out Drake because he's literally the more dangerous one of the pair. From what Selene told me, his skills with the blade are frightful. If Coredramon were to go up against him, he'd only have an advantage if he attacked from the sky. But, if the three of you went and took Drake on, it would be easier because the three of you aren't as big as Coredramon. Therefore, you'll have a simpler time evading his attacks."

I stood there dumbfounded. Seishirou had all that deduced in just a matter of seconds. From now on, I held that guy in a higher position of respect. "How long have you actually been a digidestined?"

Seishirou actually smirked – _smirked_ – at this comment. "Just keep Drake busy, and once one of us finishes up we'll help the other."

"Got it," I gave him a thumbs up.

Veemon, not wanting to lose out on the action, also gave him a thumbs up. "And don't worry if you lose! You'll just be buying my chocolate supply for the next year!"

Seishirou smiled, until I told him Veemon meant business by that statement. With this, he paled as he thought about his budget.

"Okay, so do we have a plan?" Seishirou asked. I nodded in confirmation. "Very well, then! Coredramon!"

Coredramon took to the skies once again, provoking Cyberdramon to follow suit and take their battle to the skies. When they were at a certain level, Seishirou motioned for me to go off. In the back of my mind, I wondered if I would ever get on par with that kid in terms of being a digidestined. Nevertheless, with Veemon and Shoutmon at my heels, I ran at Drake, who now stood alone in the midst of all the chaos.

Drake, noticing that we was advancing towards him, drew his longsword and charged at us, taking his attention off Cyberdramon. Within the next few seconds, he delivered three accurately deadly slashes, all of which I almost barely evaded. One was headed for Veemon and as usual he deflected it with his forehead, although the impact sent him careening back a little.

Once or twice, Shoutmon steeled his nerves against his former partner and attempted for close combat. But, the fact remained that Drake was ex-partner, so he couldn't actually get Drake out of his head long enough to perform an attack. As a result, Drake would always send him jumping back in fear with a slash of his blade.

Once, I made a small miscalculation in my steps and stumbled a little. Drake saw this as an opportunity to strike and sadly neither of my digimon were close enough to directly help. Drake and slashed horizontally in my direction twice. I dodged the first and evaded behind an electrical pole for the second. The pole was cut in half and in a fit of adrenaline, I jumped up and roundhouse kicked it towards Drake. As it threatened to squash him, Drake sliced it in half with shocking ease.

Two seconds later, I realized this was a bad idea. As the electrical pole fell to the ground, so did all the wires connecting to it. Several snapped and ran wild on the ground, threatening to electrocute anyone who dared go near with thousands of volts of electricity. I even had to watch my step while I inched my way towards my digimon to avoid getting fried.

"Erase Claw!" Cyberdramon yelled.

I looked over and saw Cyberdramon flying at Coredramon with his claws at the ready. Coredramon, waiting for the right moment to dodge, ascended within the last second. Cyberdramon's claws dug their way deep into the building behind Coredramon, deleting what he touched within the blink of an eye.

Unfortunately, Cyberdramon had hit a beam holding the building up. The rumble shook down to the ground, and the ground floor pillar cracked. Coredramon dashed downwards to support the building's now shaking foundations, albeit leaving himself wide open to attacks. Cyberdramon descends a bit, staring in smug victory at Coredramon's current condition. He couldn't even fire his beam in fear that he would lost his concentration and let the whole building collapse.

Finally, after what seemed like five long seconds of agonizing waiting, Cyberdramon used another Erase Claw on the ceiling above Coredramon's head. The ceiling broke, and anything not deleted by the attack came crashing down on Coredramon. I caught sight of Seishirou's eyes widening as he watched blocks of cement seemingly collapse onto his partner.

Coredramon finally deemed the building out of his power to save, and looked up, energy charging in his mouth. Then, with a strong burst of energy, he fired off an intense flame that incinerated anything in its way. I could practically see the line of blue energy pierce through the sky with its azure glow. It would've been an eye-catching sight, one to behold, if it weren't for Cyberdramon already getting ready to go another round.

Cyberdramon acted quicker than the still rejuvenating Coredramon, grabbing him by the waist. Then, he proceeded to smash him to the ground. However, before his attempts bore fruit, Coredramon charged up the same energy, threatening to engulf him if he didn't escape. Coredramon let loose with his lethal weapon again, lighting up the sky, though Cyberdramon had already let go to dodge the ferocious attack.

Coredramon dashed upwards, leaving Cyberdramon in the dust. The latter soon caught on to events and gave chased. Suddenly, Coredramon stopped in his tracks and zipped back down again, forcing the bigger digimon into a deadlock. Coredramon, with the help of his momentum and gravity itself, seemed to be having an easier time than Cyberdramon.

"Coredramon's good," I mumbled.

"Yeah..." Veemon agreed. It was seldom that he praised anything, so I took it that he really was amazed.

It was Shoutmon whose ears first picked up the sound of metal sliding across gravel. He turned around and we followed on cue to see Drake supporting himself with his sword. The death glare was still etched in his eyes. Any normal person to unluckily see him would faint of fear right away.

Shoutmon yells into his microphone, creating a shriek that amplified through his mike. It was one for record books. Veemon, Seishirou, and I covered our ears immediately. Coredramon and Cyberdramon were luckily only slightly affected as they were high up in the sky. But, the one thing I noticed was that Drake covered his ears as well. Veemon, seeing this as the key opportuniy, ran forward to punch. I would've stopped him, though my voice was nothing compared to this frighteningly loud noise Shoutmon was making.

Veemon was about to launch into his famous flurry of lightning combo and thunderous head butts when Drake gripped his longsword and wildly slashed it around. Veemon was forced backwards. By now, Shoutmon had eased his voice and I ran forward in time to pull Veemon back from a strike that would very well have dissected him. Drake gave us two slashes as a welcoming present, and I only barely managed to evade both.

Shoutmon, during all this, had sneaked up behind Drake and was ready to ambush him from behind. "Soul Crusher!" he yelled.

"Wha-?" Drake asked surprised, turning around to see his ex-digimon partner about to smash him in the face.

At the last minute, Shoutmon hesitated. _Oh no_, I thought. This was going to be a disaster. Shoutmon's hesitance gave Drake enough time to whip around his sword and give a violent slash. Shoutmon shook himself out of his own delusional state and blocked the hit with his mike. Then, Drake raised his leg and kicked Shoutmon out of the way.

To stop him from finishing Shoutmon off, I applied the same tactics I had used against Cyberdramon to Veemon. I grabbed him by the waist, though he was much more unwilling than Shoutmon, and spun once before flinging him at Drake. Drake, hearing Veemon's screams of terror, turns around and hits Veemon with the hilt of his blade, deflecting the small digimon onto the road.

Drake seemed to see me as a bigger threat (or an easier target, whichever suits most) than both my half-unconscious digimon. He danced around with his sword with much more mastery than he had before. It made me doubt whether I had been wise not to invite Selene to the party. Lucky for me, my reflexes kept me alive and out of his reach.

But, one particular horizontal strike caught me off guard. I quickly spun around a corner to avoid it, panting as I rested against the wall. I hadn't expected Drake's sword to slice through the cement as easily as butter. Pain coursed through my arm as I felt the cold metal cut through my sleeve and press against my skin. But, I breathed out in relief once I realized that Drake had only cut a small gash in my arm.

I ducked under the blade and kneed Drake in the chest before kicking him away. Drake's grip held tightly onto his longsword, so the moment I kicked him the blade dislodged from the wall as well. From his side, Veemon, apparently already fully re-energized, punched him twice in a combo. The last one in line was Shoutmon but my mind raced around whether he would be able to do it.

Shoutmon came out with his mike, in close quarters with Drake. There was doubt written clearly in his eyes. 'Should I attack?' he was questioning himself. He had the strength and mind to do it. The only thing missing was his guts. He just didn't have enough within him to actually bash his former digidestined partner, no matter how badly he was mistreaten.

"Just do it already, Shoutmon!" I yelled.

Shoutmon didn't budge. Drake was stumbling across. He wouldn't be regaining his balance anytime soon and Shoutmon would still have the time to attack once he had fallen. But if Shoutmon didn't attack soon, Drake would come back at us with twice as much as he had to offer. Veemon and I, being an average distance away, could only hope for Shoutmon to fight.

Then, Veemon did the most amusing thing that snapped Shoutmon to reality. "You can do it, Shoutmon! There's a burger feast at home!"

With that, Shoutmon's eyes seemed to return to their usual state, bright and twinkly instead of dull and deep in thought. He twirled his mike in his hands, shouting, "Soul Crusher!" before smashing into Drake's chest.

The samurai kid huffed before crashing onto the ground in a heap. Next to him, a wire jumped around wildly, eager to electrocute someone. It would've reassured me more if Drake had been pumped with a thousand volts of electricity. It didn't take me at all a long time to figure out that Shoutmon had purposely avoided hitting Drake into the wires. Shoutmon's heart still had Drake carved deeply within and no amount of comforting would change that. I was only glad he had the guts to actually attack his former digidestined. That was enough an achievement for the little guy for now.

I shifted my vision to watch Coredramon's battle. It wasn't going as well as I'd thought it would.

Cyberdramon and Coredramon were still locked with each other, each struggling to get the upper hand over the other. However, I could make out the fact that Cyberdramon was, despite Coredramon's strength and the aid of gravity itself, pushing Coredramon back inch by inch every second. Seishirou himself didn't know what to do, and since the fight was taking place in the air, I couldn't help much either.

Before we knew anything, a metal ball flew out of nowhere and smacked Cyberdramon right in the face with a metallic ring. My eyes widened. I only knew of one digimon that attacked like that. Turns out, it was just as I suspected. Dorugamon was flying a little distance away, accompanied by a small igure of a girl running towards us – definitely Selene.

"Power Metal!" Dorugamon cried, firing three metal cannonballs at Cyberdramon.

To avoid anymore attacks, Cyberdramon disengaged from the deadlock, using his claws to swipe away the incoming cannonballs. Cyberdramon was just about to dash forward when Coredramon rammed into his side. Cybedramon lost balance for a second, but that second was all that was needed for the two Champions to wrap their respective tails around Cyberdramon's legs.

Acting like trained professionals, both of the digimon synchronized their movements and skilfully catapulted Cyberdramon down to the ground. He crashed like a meteorite, forming a crater twice his size. I stared in shock at all this. I knew Selene and Seishirou knew one another but I didn't expect their digimons' teamwork to be so good.

"That's so cool..." Shoutmon gazed.

"Chocolate!" Veemon burst out randomly.

Coredramon fired a Blue Flare Death once he saw Cyberdramon try getting up. Dorugamon did the same and fired several Power Metal attacks his way. Cyberdramon would evade the strong beam of azure blue first, before smacking the below-his-standards metal balls away. It was virtually a stalemate all over again.

"Hey guys!" Selene greeted as she panted from her run.

"How'd you get here, Selene?" I asked.

"When you two didn't return for a while, I suspected foul play from one of you," Selene eyed me and then turned her gaze to Seishirou who was jogging towards us. "I told your friends I'd pay the bill but they weren't exactly psyched to be alone for lunch. Anyway, I just saw Cyberdramon and Coredramon wrestling it out high in the sky so I figured that's where the both of you were."

"Good guess," Seishirou complimented. "So you left everyone else back at Sushi Heaven?"

"Yeah," Selene admitted, twiddling with her fingers. "It's bad, I admit, but would you rather I'd stayed back there and let the two of you have your butts kicked?"

"Well, in any case, I guess you arrived just in time," I said.

"Power Metal!" Dorugamon yelled, directing our attention back to the battle.

The purple Champion digimon fired three shots from his mouth, all easily repelled and blocked by Cyberdramon. Coredramon seemed to be regaining his energy, slightly panting. In a rash attempt, Dorugamon flew at Cyberdramon, trying to make his best imitation of Veemon's infamous headbutt attack.

The attack worked. Cyberdramon was forced back a few inches as Dorugamon slammed into his chest. However, being at this close range meant Cyberdramon had the opportunity to quickly grab hold of Dorugamon's tail and slam him into the ground. Coredramon, who had just finished recharging his energy, made several hesitating attempts to fire in fear of hitting his fellow comrade.

Seishirou, sensing the situation, called out to Coredramon. "Go close!"

Coredramon understood perfectly and zipped into close quarters with Cyberdramon as well. He made a U-turn right in front of Cyberdramon, letting his tail crash into the cyborg dragon digimon, causinng a miniature explosion. "Strike Bomber!"

The hit was enough to loosen Cyberdramon of his hold. Dorugamon flew up next to Coredramon before the both of them retreated several metres.

"Erase Claw!" Cyberdramon shouted, dashing at the two again.

Dorugamon and Coredramon both parted in different directions, with Cyberdramon turning his attention to face the former. Dorugamon strained his wings to keep away from the attack. In the end, Cyberdramon's speed topped his and his back was slashed by the vicious attack.

"Dorugamon!" Selene cried out.

Dorugamon degenerated mid-flight and hurtled to the ground like an out-of-control meteor. Selene caught him before he crashed onto the rough gravel below. She was busy checking if he was okay. I would've helped her if I wasn't busy trying to keep an eye on Cyberdramon's movements and help Seishirou find an opening.

Speaking of the guy, I took a glance and was shocked at what I saw.

His irises, usually just red in colour, were now a striking deep blood red. His expression had also turned cold, with no sign of worry in his face, just anger and fury boiling up. He eyed Cyberdramon cautiously before turning his attention to Coredramon.

"Coredramon, use Strike Bomber from above!" Seishirou commanded.

There was a different aura about him. When he spoke, he held authority in his voice. It was certainly the tone a general would use on his troops in a war, especially a losing one. The tone itself contained discipline and comfort, crunched together. He certainly knew how to fuel someone.

"Seishirou, how about trying to weaken Cyberdramon first with those loose electric cords?" I asked. "If Coredramon looped around them fast enough, he could confuse Cyberdramon into going _between_ the lines, trapping his colossal figure there. The shock should at least weaken him, right?"

Seishirou considered my plan but gave no sign that he'd accepted it.

Coredramon, in the sky, flew downwards at Cyberdramon, ready to strike with his tail again. "Strike Bomber!"

Cyberdramon was ready this time and deflected the hit with his claws. However, Coredramon just rushed pass him after his attack failed, going down towards the electrical wires that hung loosely from pole to pole.

"Coredramon, build up air currents!" Seishirou shouted. I had no idea what that meant but apparently Coredramon did.

His digimon partner proceeded to randomly zip here and there, creating massive gusts of wind wherever he went. Cyberdramon gave chase to the wild digimon, attempting to catch him in an Erase Claw attack. With two digimon dashing around wildly in the air, the sky broke into mindless gales of wind everywhere.

"Now get through one of those wires!" Seishirou commanded.

I could see what Seishirou was doing now. The wind was blowing several wires either apart from or towards each other. Coredramon found one with a large enough opening and dove through it, folding his wings just to make room. Cyberdramon, on the other hand, was too large for the gap between the two wires and found himself entangled, before thousands and thousands of volts coursed through his body.

Despite this, Cyberdramon still managed to summon enough strength for him to tear the wires out of their holds. Even so, Coredramon anticipated this turn of events and had a Blue Flare Death attack all charged up. Cyberdramon, although barely, evaded the attack. However, in his dizziness at getting shocked by volts of electricity, he didn't see where he was clearly going and accidentally slammed into a building, knocking him out as he crashed to the ground.

I was about to yell out in triumph when I heard someone stepping silently behind me. Upon instict, I knew that it was Drake. I just _knew_. I pushed Selene and Seishirou, who were standing beside me, away as I dodge rolled of a downward slash from behind. Shoutmon and Veemon were both surprised at the sudden piece of metal that came down between them. They both jumped out of the way and got ready for a fight.

As expected, Drake was behind us. Veemon headbutted him backwards, causing him to fall over. Drake struggled to get up and he found renewed vigour when he saw one end of a wire dancing wildly. He took on a crazed look as he touched the tip of his sword against the electric current. In the blink of an eye, electricity surged through his metallic blade as well, crackling wildly and impatiently.

Uh oh. I knew on the spot that he just got twice as dangerous. Now, Veemon couldn't deflect his hits with his forehead unless he wanted his brain fried. Shoutmon and I couldn't risk getting near either, afraid of inviting the several thousand volts of electricity now running through his blade.

Drake slashed at us with insane speed. I was only lucky I managed to dodge all of them. Selene and Seishirou were devastated at the fight. They obviously didn't dare jump in themselves in case they received the fatal blow from the sword. However, Dorumon was still not recovered and Coredramon would've risked destroying everyone with his Blue Flare Death.

Then, I spotted an opening and quickly seized the opportunity. I ducked under Drake's arm after he executed a poor swing of his blade. Then, I grabbed his arm and yanked him backwards, swinging him around twice before tripping him. Drake fell onto the ground but not before throwing his sword at Veemon.

Veemon, being the idiot that he was, didn't realize that headbutting the electrical sword would result in him receiving part of the charge. He jumped up and attempted to headbutt it. His thick skull managed to once again deflect the blade, but it didn't protect him against the volts now coursing through his body.

"Veemon!" I called out.

Drake got up and knocked me over before running for his blade. Shoutmon knew he couldn't let Drake get hold of the blade or we'd all be finished, and therefore raced for it as well. Sadly, Drake was the one who reached it first, delivering an assassinating blow at Shoutmon. The digimon skilfully blocked with his mike, but the same event occurred with Veemon, and Shoutmon felt volts of electricity paralysing his body.

"Shoutmon!" I yelled.

"You're last," Drake turned to me.

He then continued to do several slashes, all of which I dodged for my life. If I was even hit with one of them I would be doomed. Not only would I feel shocked from the zap, I might loose a limb or two. Unfortunately, even I couldn't continue dodging forever, and Drake managed to cut a small gash on my shoulder.

I felt my mind go fuzzy as electricity traveled throughout my body. Instantaneously I fell to the ground, unable to keep my balance.

Seishirou, seeing as he had no choice but to interfere, ran forward to help me. Coredramon found that he had to protect his partner and therefore also dashed towards me. What we didn't know was that Cyberdramon had regained consciousness and was watching the fight. Sensing Drake in danger, Cyberdramon knocked Coredramon into a building, stopping the digimon from providing aid.

Then, the next thing that happened was a chain of blurry events. A dark figure dashed out from the shadows, pulled out a gun, and fired two energy shots. One was aimed for Drake and the other at Cyberdramon. Both exploded upon contact.

As the smoke cleared, I noticed that the dark figure was gone. However, Drake's sword was broken in half. Meanwhile, Cyberdramon was on all fours, struggling to even crawl.

That was all I remembered before I blacked out.

* * *

><p>So how was it? This chapter was a little longer than others I've done. Hopefully it's apology enough for not being able to submit this chapter earlier. So how was the fight scene? Good or bad?<p>

I know I might have some grammatical errors and vocabulary mistakes this time because I couldn't submit this to my beta beforehand. If you find anything, please state in your reviews so I may correct them.

Tendou Souji, I wanted to clarify if I got Seishirou's character right. Since it's been a while since I wrote him, I was worried I'd get him a little different than how you'd prefer. If I made any mistakes with his character, please let me know.

Please read and review!


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